Passed Me By
by Brandon Payne
Summary: A university student named Linda Jones becomes stranded on a deserted island right before the outbreak. Twenty years later, she manages to return to America, only to discover just how much the world has changed. She ends up befriending two very familiar characters. OC-centric. Gameplay storyline incorporated.
1. Prologue

_September 23, 2013_

"Come on, get up! Get up before the ship sinks!"

A man had bellowed in the dark over the din of loud knocking. There are muted sounds of splashing and roaring.

" . . . What the fuck . . . ?"

" . . . I'll get it, I'll get it, since I'm down here . . . "

A rustling of cloth is heard, followed by the sound of bare feet slapping against a bare floor. A click of a switch and a lightbulb brightens to reveal a small room no bigger than a walk-in closet that consists of a bunk bed, a pair of closets, and a porthole window with a white curtain pulled across it. The person who turned the light on via switch next to the door is a girl in her late teens as she winces at the sudden brightness. She is White with long strikingly red hair and blue eyes. And as is typical of redheads, she is pale. She is wearing pyjamas consisting of thin cotton yellow pants with blue flower prints, and a matching long-sleeved top. In the top bunk is another girl, now sitting up groggily as she rubs the side of her face, who is also White but with a slightly darker complexion, grey eyes, and long black wavy hair parted in the middle.

"Everyone up. Now!" That man shouted outside once again as he runs up and down thumping on more doors.

The redhead opens the door and peeks out into a long narrow hallway with various other young people emerging with bewildered but groggy looks. All of them are dressed in close-fitting nightwear.

"A storm just came up out of nowhere!" That man shouted from down the hallway. He is White with long light brown hair fasten into a pony tail and green eyes shielded behind aviator glasses. "You were all warned about something like this! Come on, get dressed and get to the main hall!" He bellowed even louder and more desperately.

They rush back inside. Before taking this journey, they were instructed that whenever they go to bed, they are to always dress in close-fitting nightwear so that they can quickly put on their storm gear if ever an emergency should arise during the night.

"And it was such a beautiful day today!" the redhead fumed as she dresses in dark green waders that go up to her chest with straps and a bright yellow vinyl hooded jacket. She also puts on her LCD watch.

"Linda, did you honest believe that we were always going to have clear days and nights out over the sea for the rest of our semester?" Her dark-haired roommate said sarcastically as she is putting on bright yellow vinyl pants, hooded jacket, and black rubber boots.

They are soon dressed and out to meet their captain, as are the rest of their shipmates. He takes a role call and everyone calls out their presence. They are university students and the boat they are on is a sailing vessel. It is part of their History curriculum at Florida University, with their professor also their captain. Early this morning, they had left from the port of Miami with a clear sky, which continued for the rest of the day as they headed into Bahamian waters. Then that storm had blown up in a matter of minutes.

"Okay. Everyone ready?" Their professor asked intently.

"Can't we just wait out the storm, Professor Parkman? We did send an emergency signal," a Black male student asked.

"He's right. It's too dangerous out there," another student piped up, an Oriental girl.

"No choice. If we don't do something, we'll sink," Parkman stated. "Now let's get to it."

They quickly scurry outside and go to work battening down the hatches. It is dangerous work as not only is there the wind, rain, and rocking to contend with, but also the large waves that wash over the boat time and again.

Linda awakens with a gasp and discovers that she is alive and floating around in the Atlantic Ocean, courtesy of her life preserver. The last thing she remembers was a massive wave washing over the ship, especially upon her.

She looks around to see that the sky is overcast and the storm has mostly blown over. She takes notice of an island that looks to be a couple of miles away. Visual distance is impossible to gauge upon the ocean or any other large body of water. She checks her watch, thankful that it is waterproof up to 200 meters and even more thankful that she had thought to put it on in the first place, to see that the time is 8:34 a.m. and that today's date is September the twenty-fourth.

Linda starts swimming, but the waders prove troublesome and knows that she will need to shed them in order to swim better, even if it means leaving them behind. The problem is that they are not hers to begin with, but her father's as he had assumed that she would return them afterwards.

With a groan, she attempts to undo her straps, but is unable to so because her life preserver and jacket are in the way, even after opening the jacket snaps. Do she dare remove her life preserver to get this done? Staying afloat will be harder, raising the possibility of drowning.

Steeling herself, she starts untying the main string to her life preserver. Since it is a bow, it is easy to undo and the life preserver floats up to her face as if about to by pried off. She discovers that maybe she doesn't need to remove her life preserver as only the main string was in the way. Linda removes her vinyl jacket and slips out of it, then fishes around for the wader's clasps and undoes them. She pushes the waders off, kicking for good measure to get them off her legs. With that done, she takes the main string and rewraps it around her body. Unable to make a bow, she instead does a double knot.

She relaxes now that she had tied it back on. She now feels guilty that she had lost her father's waders and hopes that he will understand. Then gets vexed over being unable to put her jacket back on and cannot take it with her.

Linda clears her head and focuses on that island and starts swimming. It is easier now that she had shed much of her garments, although her life preserver still interferes a bit. She knows, however, that she will need it if she is to ever reach that island. The next of her fears to surface are sharks showing up from being attracted by her splashing.

The morning passes into noon, then afternoon. The sky has since cleared, revealing the sun in all its glory. At least the water is keeping her cool, if not hydrated. She takes breaks every now and again and wonders if she will ever make it. At least the island now seems to get increasingly larger to her. It is still far though. No sharks as of yet, just other smaller fish instead. Some swim away from her while others make no haste, as if unafraid. At one point, a hawksbill turtle swims by. But thankfully no sharks.

It is late in the evening and Linda stops once again as that island looms before her. Her muscles ache and she is exhausted. Her throat feels like sand paper from thirst and she has a headache that feels like a jackhammer inside her skull. It looks as if it will be another few hundred feet before she can tread upon that shore. She sizes up that island to find that it is small, probably less than a mile wide, and like a hill. At least there are trees and vegetation on that island, meaning that there is adequate rainfall. That in turn means drinking water. On the other hand, food may be an issue.

She checks her watch to find that it is five pm. A couple of hours before sunset to be followed by brief twilight. Despite her aches and pains, she resumes her swim. Her limbs feel like lead. She looks toward the beach to see that it is a rocky one as far as she can see in either direction. Linda knows she will have a difficult time as bare feet upon hard rocky ground means pain.

Eventually, the ocean floor gets closer to her. That moment when she treads the bottom is the moment a surge of relief floods through her. It is a rocky bottom too, much to her chagrin, so she opts to remain swimming forward.

She is next startled by something scurrying away from underneath her. It is large and narrow. A shark judging by its shape, a nurse shark to be exact; not normally dangerous because they are slow-moving predators that pray only upon equally slow-moving or stationary creatures such as shelled invertebrates. They have molar-like teeth for crushing instead of biting, making them incapable of tearing flesh. Yet they can still inflict a very painful bite that will leave deep teeth marks in human skin.

The bottom gets increasingly shallower. Her fingers finally tread the rocky bottom, but she continues to go forward, crawling now as she can now get her hands firmly on the shoreline. The momentum of the waves carry her ashore until she is upon the rocky shoreline and can no longer move forward, causing the waves to splash up into her face. Linda repositions herself and sits upon the rocky shore, dreading what is to come next. In the meantime, she reaches up and starts to untie the strings of her life preserver. Between the wetness of the strings, her exhaustion, and the double knot that she tied in the main string, it proves a difficult task. But she manages to do so and slip it off over her head and throw it ahead of herself where it lands a few feet away.

Linda next leans her head back while slicking her hair back with her hands. She looks around at the canopy of trees, wondering how she is going to make her way through all that. She needs a drink badly. With all this vegetation, there must be a stream around here somewhere.

She finally forces herself to stand and winces with pain with a gasp as her soft feet press against the hard rocky ground. She knows that in order to survive, she will need to bear this pain. It is a torment that causes her to make a soft gasping ouch with each step, made all the worse by her general tiredness and soreness. She checks the time to see that it is now five thirty-two.

In much pain and now dragging her life preserver, she shambles down the shoreline, looking for a source of freshwater to drink. Birds can be heard through the forest and so far the beach is a rocky one. No sign of freshwater yet.

It is close to sunset when she finally comes upon a stream several inches wide and roughly half as deep. She gets down upon her knees, wincing at the pain of the rocks against her flesh and bones as she plunges her hands into the cool stream. She lifts her cupped hands full of water to her mouth, slurps deeply, and drops them with a sigh of tremendous relief feeling revitalized once again.

Repositioning herself to sit upon her buttocks so as to be less painful, she drops her hands in and scoops up more water to drink. She repeats it again.

And again. And again. And again . . .

By the time she finally finishes, her stomach is full of water. She groans from the feeling of nausea and hopes not to vomit. At least she doesn't feel thirsty anymore. Linda looks up to where that stream is flowing from, noticing that there is a wide path through those trees. That path was not made by that stream.

She gets back up, wincing at the pain of the rocks and decides to walk up it to discover that it seems to be a trail. Like the shoreline, the trail is also rocky. She is soon led to a large single story building made of concrete. The stream runs off from the low hill behind and near it. The door and windows are still intact, though vegetation grows around it; meaning that while this place wasn't vandalized, it has not been lived in for a very long time. Linda walks up to the door and tries the knob to find that it is not locked. It would have been irrelevant for this place.

Before entering, she looks down and fingers her soaking wet pyjamas and wonders if to really take them off? There's no one around and by the looks of this place, nobody had ever been around for a long time. With a sigh, she peels off her pyjamas, revealing that she is not wearing anything else underneath. She feels so vulnerable now and wants to put them back on.

As Linda fights with her modesty, she wrings out her pyjamas then decides to hang them up somewhere out here to dry. She doesn't think that anything could come along and take them. After locating a tree with an adequate branch, she throws them over it. Her life preserver she ties next to it. She rubs her arms and feels as if any second now, a man or even a group of men will come walking up that trail.

She turns around and opens the door, the hinges creak with rust. Upon entering, that rank smell greets her nose, showing that this place had been barred up for a long time. She enters, feeling the chill of the concrete floor against her bare feet, to look around at the large room she is within. There is a large blackboard on one side of the wall and there are open doors in the other walls to reveal other rooms.

With what little is left of the daylight, Linda checks the place out. At first, she thought it had been a school, but dismisses such a notion as there is no village here. Most of the rooms seemed to have once been sleeping quarters as they have rectangular plywood boards set into the wall and raised on stilts. Other rooms were once a kitchen; washrooms with stalls, toilets, and sinks now missing; and a shower room with its stalls and sinks also missing. There are also some cabinets around the place and she searches through them to discover that not everything had been cleared out as she finds an old rusty cutting knife, a small box full of white chalk, and a chalk eraser. The last two she takes and puts out on the blackboard shelf.

Linda tries to figure out the purpose of this place, but is unable to know what that could have been. Although there does seem to be some sort of militaristic feel to it. Maybe that blackboard was for writing down plans? She stares up at the light fixtures and concludes that this place must have been powered by a diesel generator. She returns outside and goes around to the back to find a room with the door facing in the opposite direction. A search inside turns up nothing, save for the connections that would have once belonged to such a generator.

Linda returns inside the building. She next stares at that blackboard, then at her watch. An idea forms in her mind and she walks up to the blackboard, picks up a piece of chalk, and prints a sentence.

Linda Jones was here from September 24, 2013 to.

But stops, leaving the end blank and puts the chalk back down on the shelf. She next removes her watch, places it at the other end of the shelf, and looks toward one of the sleeping rooms. The prospect of sleeping naked in a place like this makes her feel even more vulnerable. She enters one of those rooms and lies on the cot. The wood is firm, yet yielding.

Linda continues to lie there as the daylight fades with the setting sun, which slowly passes into night. There she lies in that state on that bunk, curled in on herself. Never had she felt so vulnerable and alone.

She begins crying.


	2. Chapter 1

It is sunrise as Linda prints today's date at the end of that sentence on that blackboard so that it now reads:

Linda Jones was here from September 24, 2013 to June 24, 2033.

Upon finishing, she smiles absently while tilting her head and starts singing.

Happy birthday to me.  
Happy birthday to me.  
Happy birthday, dear Linda.  
Happy birthday to me.

For today is her thirty-eighth birthday.

In the left corner of the blackboard are the years that the leap years fell upon. All of which turned out to be a good thing because her watch had finally given out on August 19, 2018, as the date had been printed in the right corner of the blackboard just above where her watch now lies on the shelf. For almost twenty years, she made it a habit of writing in a new date for every day she awoke to, believing that it was going to be the day that she would be rescued. Eventually, she just did it out of force of habit. Another habit she had picked up was talking to herself, which at times included singing, and even shouting. This helped to preserve her larynx.

Her first few days here had been nearly the last few days of her life. Although there was, and still is, food in the form of berries and wild fruit, she almost made the deadly mistake of outstripping her food supply. She had to force herself to eat only twice a day. She began looking to other sources, most notably animal matter. The first she ate were bugs. It was almost impossible for her to do that in the beginning, given that she had vomited the first time she ate a beetle. She did get used to them . . . eventually. She also learned how to start a fire using the friction of sticks. She sharpened stick points and used these to spear fish, then used the knife to gut and clean them and was able to roast seafood over her fires. There was also a time when she managed to catch a bird, though it was more through luck as it had a broken wing to begin with. She broke its neck, plucked and gutted it, then finally roasted it.

She can now eat a bug the way most people would eat a piece of steak and prepare a fire in minutes, especially if the weather is dry. She used a part of the island away from her water source where she could defecate. Due to her sparse diet, she does not do that as much as she used to. She can also sleep comfortably on the piece of wood that once held a mattress. It helps when she uses her life preserver as a mattress, which is flatter now.

She had worn her pyjamas each and every day and night. But such garments are meant to be worn only while sleeping in a bed with a soft mattress and sheets. During the first five years, they wore down into a thoroughly soil and ragged crude tanktop and briefs. Wanting to preserve them, she made the decision to store them away for the hope of rescue. At first it had been daunting because she had kept expecting someone to show up out of the blue. As time went on and nobody ever showed up, she got more comfortable like this.

Those past fifteen years, five more for her head, hands, and feet, has caused her formerly pale skin to now sport a red undertone, with even redder freckles that makes her skin look like the coat of a leopard, jaguar, or cheetah. Her physique is made thinner by want, yet wirier by activity. Her feet are callused to the point that she can walk comfortably as if wearing a pair of shoes; although she still has slight trouble running. She manages to keep her toenails trimmed by use of that knife. Like her feet, her hands are also callused and she also trims her fingernails in the same manner as her toenails. Her red hair has become a slicked back irredeemably tangled crusty mess, though she keeps it trimmed at her nape with the use of that knife.

In all that time, she had explored every square foot of the island and found nothing, not even a piece of trash outside of that building. It could have meant that all of their garbage was disposed of by being shipped back. All those years she had hoped against hope of getting off the island. There were times when she almost fell into despair as the loneliness dominated. Her dreams were becoming more dominated by this place. But she never gave up.

After having a breakfast of berries, wild pale-skinned fruit that she assumed were apples due to their taste, and several beetles, she goes down to the shore and walks around. Something she has done ever since her coming here. She has surmised that the island is approximately a mile in circumference. More out of habit now than hope, she assumes that this time a boat or even a plane will come by and she will be rescued. Although a part of her is starting to accept the fact that maybe she will spend the rest of her life here, and perhaps by the time someone returns here, her body will have long rotted away to a skeleton.

Linda stops and stares absent-mindedly at something approximately a hundred feet from shore, not sure if what she is looking at is real. It is a white motorboat. In an instance, she feels embarrassed to be naked and is caught between wanting to hurry back and put on the remains of her pyjamas or calling out to the people in that boat.

Her euphoria and desperation override her modesty.

"Hey!" As she cups her hands around her mouth. "Hey, you . . . ! Help me, I'm trapped here!"

But nobody rises in response.

"Hey . . . ! Is there anybody there . . . ?! Hey!"

Again, no response.

Linda sighs deeply and looks back toward where she is currently living, thinking of her clothing. She hurries back and fetches the remnants of her pyjamas. She puts them on, finding it odd to feel the cloth against her skin after having gone naked for so long. Next is her life preserver as she pulls that on and ties it into place snugly. She hurries off, but not before stopping to look at the blackboard. After getting up each and every morning and erasing the date at the end to put in a new one, she will finally get to leave this place. This prison. She glances at her watch, wondering if she should take it with her, but decides to leave it.

Upon reaching the shoreline, Linda feels relieved that the boat is still there. She begins wading deeper into the water and starts swimming. It becomes clear to her now that no one is aboard that boat.

After what must have been nearly a half an hour, she finally reaches it as she reaches out to touch the prow.

"Is there anybody there? Hello?" And knocks on the hull.

Now she knows that nobody is there, with the drifting mooring line alongside her being the final proof. She knows that she will need to get in there by herself and swims around to the right side, reaches up with both hands, and pulls herself up with all of her strength. But her life preserver interferes and she removes it and slings it into the boat. Once again, she pulls herself up and this time is successful as she is able to hook both arms over the side and finds herself facing her life preserver on the bottom of the truly empty boat.

The motorboat has an inboard motor with seating consisting of two seats facing the front, with the steering wheel on the right side, and one long seat at the back that curves around. The seats are padded and covered in grey vinyl. Once up far enough, she lifts first one leg up over the side, then the other, and tumbles into the boat onto her life preserver.

Linda lies there for a moment, relishing the feeling of being in a boat. She gets up and next lies down upon the back seat, bending her body in contour with the seating. She sighs as she relishes the feel of the soft foam padding underneath her, along with the hot vinyl pressing against her skin. The hot sun beating down upon her.

"It's been . . . so long," she sighed. "Too long."

She gives a start at having realized that she had almost fallen asleep. She gets up, causing the vinyl to peel away from her skin. She checks out the paneling and finds the gas gauge, though it can only be read when the motor is on. The throttle handle is near the steering wheel as expected. A compass with the W underneath the red line. The keys are still in the ignition and it has a start button alongside it. There are signs of rust on the chrome railing and edges of the windshield. Underneath the prow is a cubby and she opens it to discover two red plastic gas cans fastened into place, along with a large white plastic camper cooler. She quickly undoes the bindings, takes out the camper cooler, and removes the lid to discover a white plastic produce jug full of water and a very large bag of trail mix.

Linda tears open the bag and starts devouring the mixture of nuts, dried fruit, shredded coconut, and seeds. The texture and taste all at once becomes familiar to her once again. She forces herself to stop and savor it before continuing until half the pack is gone. She next takes first one gas can then the other to find that they are full. There has to be enough gas to take her back to the mainland.

She climbs up to the prow and pulls the mooring line in, figuring that it must have gotten away from the owner. She removes the line from the ring and furls it in, carrying it into the boat. After putting it down in the back of the boat, she puts her life preserver back on, then sits in the driver's seat with a sigh as she clasps the wheel with both hands.

"Okay, Linda . . . This is easy. Just keep driving this boat west."

Slowly, she takes hold of the keys and turns them. Next, is the start button as she momentarily rests her thumb over it. Finally, she pushes it and the boat roars to life, causing her to smile broadly as relief floods through her. Linda looks at the fuel gauge to see that the needle is over on the F, then glances at the compass once more to see that the prow is indeed pointing west, almost away from the island.

Linda clasps that throttle and firmly pushes it all the way forward, causing the boat to speed forward. Not once did it enter her mind that she might not survive the Atlantic in an open motorboat, nor even the possibility that she might run out of fuel long before reaching land. Instead, other questions are racing through her mind. Why did they not find her yet? Do they truly believe that she is dead? What about everyone on that sailing boat, did they survive as well?

One question always haunted her: why didn't the people who once owned this place ever return?

Linda can feel the high swells of the ocean beneath her through the boat. She frequently glances at the compass to see if she is keeping the W underneath that thick red line. Now that she thinks about what she is doing, she wonders if she will truly reach land before running out of fuel. Since that island is a part of the Bahamas, North America cannot be that far away, nor any other island for that matter. If it is to be an island, then let it be where the capital, Nassau, is located. From there, she can get back to her home in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She remembers the stories about the parents of children who went missing for years. About how they never wanted to leave the home they were currently living when their children went missing.

She also eyes the sky as it has since clouded over. A storm could not blow up at the worst possible time. It doesn't rain, though she still doesn't trust those clouds.

It is late in the evening as the sun is setting, judging by the bright redness of the clouds over the western horizon. The engine starts to sputter, then stop altogether as it runs out of gas. With what little light is left in the day, she answers the call of nature by sticking her bottom over the end of the boat. Afterwards, she eats some of the trail mix and has another large drink of water. She knows that she will need to ration this carefully.

Linda is about to remove her life preserver, but keeps it on in case the boat gets turned over and lies down on the backseat. She listens to the water flopping underneath the boat as it repeatedly pitches up and down on the Atlantic. She had forgotten how vulnerable she had felt when she first woke up in it. Even though she is in a boat, that feeling has not lessened. This causes sleep to come in fits. At one point, she looks up to see that the sky is pitch black, meaning that it is still cloudy.

She awakens once again to see that the sky is now a dim grey, meaning it must be dawn. She gets up and sure enough, she can see the red horizon to the east. But waits until the sun is high enough before she can do anything. With the eastern horizon soon becoming a bright red, she gets ready to go. First, she eats some of her trail mix and has a large drink of water. Next, she takes one of the gas cans out and removes the motor box. She locates the cap and removes it. Setting up the plastic can, she proceeds to fill up the tank. At first, it is clumsy since the can is heavy with gas, but it soon gets lighter as it gets drained. It takes the entire can to fill up the tank.

After replacing the respective caps and putting the engine cover back on, she secures that empty can away and takes her seat. She starts the engine up and looks at the reddening horizon to get her bearings with that obvious direction for east and opens up on the throttle while turning the boat to have that horizon in her back. She stops only at midday to have some more of her trail mix and a drink of water. The day is still overcast and threatens to rain. At times, pecks do fall, but it never lasts long.

She does not stop until she runs out of gas near sunset. Only one more can left.

At one point that night, she awakens to see that the sky has cleared. There is no moon out, so the stars are out in their innumerable multitudes, including the Milky Way as it is a ghostly white trail across the sky. At times, meteors streak by. Linda smiles at the majesty of the universe, yet cannot help but feel uneasy.

"Goddamn it, I feel so small. And the Atlantic isn't helping me any."

Linda falls back to sleep and awakens once again to see that the sky is a solid grey once again. She gets up to see that dawn is not far off and does what she did roughly twenty-four hours ago. She leaves a few mouthfuls of trail mix for when she runs out of gas once again, which should be late in the evening. Though there looks to be enough water for today and possibly tomorrow.

"Last gas can." As she looks at in, then pours it into the tank, and hopes to reach land today. "A person can live for a few weeks without food, but not for more than a few days without water . . . Damn, I wish I thought about returning to the island and loading up that bin with berries and stuff . . . That's what I get for being too eager."

It is well into the morning as Linda is speeding along. A brilliant flash lights up the sky, causing her to gasp from both the suddenness and the frustration. It is not long after that when a flash of lightening seemingly splits the sky, but the engine drowns out the thunder.

As the minutes go by, more lightening occurs, much closer and brighter now. Linda has a death grip on the wheel with both hands. She is startled by a flash so bright that it causes spots to dance before her eyes, and immediately hears the explosion of thunder over the noise of the engines.

It finally rains. And rain it does as it instantly turns into a torrent, soaking her in seconds. The speed of the boat causes the drops to sting against her skin and eyes, forcing her to squint as she grits her teeth against those stings. She tries leaning forward to keep low over the windshield for protection, but it's not enough and isforced to stop and turn the engine off.

There she sits waiting for the rain to stop as it beats down while immense flashes of lightening, quickly followed by roars of painfully loud thunder, add to her misery. She fears that the lightening will strike the boat or close to her. Back on the island wherever a storm blew up, she simply took refuge in that building.

"Could it get any worse?"

Linda notices that the boat is starting to fill up with rainwater and quickly goes into action by repeatedly scooping up handfuls of water and splashing it over the side. She is forced to keep this up for as long as the rain keeps up. At one point, she decides to stretch her water and gulps down several hand fulls of rainwater.

She continues bailing water out of the boat. Lightening splits the sky and thunder sounds off like explosions just above her head. Her arms start aching. At least there is very little wind involved. An oddity given that this is the open ocean, but still a good one because it would have meant the swamping of her boat.

Over time, a long period of time, the lightening flashes become less frequent and more distant; the thunder starts taking longer to reply and decreases in volume as well. The rain slackens to a shower and Linda takes a break. Her arms feel so sore and heavy now, but her task paid off as her boat did not fill up.

Linda looks up at the sky to see that the light and dark grey clouds have taken on a more layered appearance. The wind picks up, this time from the west. The direction she is going.

"No choice."

As she speeds along, that wind gets stronger and the waves higher. From the time she had left that island, she had been traveling with the waves instead of against them, giving them less of an incline. Now with the waves coming toward her, their incline has become sharper, forcing her to slow down so as not to hit an oncoming wave too hard and get thrown over.

The problem is that slower travel means a longer time to reach land, increasing the possibility of running out of fuel beforehand. Along with having to go against the waves means that her boat will have to put more effort into it, causing the engine to burn even more gas. That is assuming she reaches land under ideal conditions before then.

It is around an hour before sunset that she can finally make out a strip of land and feels relieved. It is a huge strip of land going as far as her eyes can see in either direction. She is still far away from it though, but given its size it must be North America!

Linda's hopes are now buoyant. Now if only she can reach land before running out of fuel or it grows too dark. As she continues onward, the sun continues going lower in the sky. The land still does not get any closer.

The sun is now setting and the land has only gotten slightly larger. Linda looks at the fuel gauge to see that the tank is now almost empty. Taking a big sigh, she stops the boat and shuts the engine off. Ever since she had left that island, the days had been warm and the nights mild. Even today as she was in that rain, it was still mild. Now it's cooling down. During the previous nights over the ocean, it had remained mild. That cooling down now is not a good sign because she knows that if it gets cool enough, especially with her still wet, it can mean hypothermia.

"Looks like its back to sleeping naked." Then removes her life preserver, feeling relieved after having worn it for so long, then her clothing which she tosses down. She puts her life preserver back on, not wanting to be dumped overboard by a rogue wave while she sleeps. Linda lies down on the backseat. She looks up to see that the cloud cover is still thick.

"Now all it needs to do is rain again and my misery will be complete."

Linda awakens to the feeling of being damp, yet not cold. From what she can feel, both the air and water are still. She opens her eyes and notices that it must be dawn as she can see somewhat, then sits up.

"What the fuck?" Upon noticing fog so thick that she can barely see the prow of the boat.

She carefully sticks her bottom over the end of the boat once again, then temporarily removes her life preserver to put her clothes back on, wincing at their dampness. She opens the plastic box and takes out the remainder of trail mix and water, about a quarter full now, and finishes them.

Linda puts the empty jug and bag back into the box, then into the cubby, and stares into that fog.

"Looks like I'm going to have to move slowly." As she gets into her seat. The years of living on that island may have made her patient and disciplined, but that was over the acceptance of the possibility of dying of old age back there. Now that she is so close to land, so close to home, she wants off the sea and back on dry land. American land.

She starts up the engine and the noise seems even louder than ever, given the silence of the day. She takes one last look to see that the tank truly is almost empty and that the W is still underneath the red line.

Linda opens the throttle up halfway and is soon off toward the west.

The day gets increasingly brighter during her slow travel as she is only going half the speed she normally did. The water's surface looks like glass being temporary broken by the wake created by her boat. That fog still shows no signs of diminishing as tendrils of it are whipped aside by her very movement. The windshield has fogged up, forcing her to keep watch over it. She keeps feeling that any second now she will run aground. It seems as if hours are passing by. The thickness of the fog and gloom of the day causes her mind to drift.

The familiar sputtering of the engine startles Linda and then promptly stops, causing the boat to predictably lose most of its momentum. Linda groans as she drops back into her seat and plunks her head upon the steering wheel. She was afraid that something like this was going to happen. She keeps this position as the boat continues to drift forward. A drizzle starts falling, making her more wet now. She begins to doze off while wondering if she should just jump out of the boat and swim to shore when the fog clears.

"What the fuck?!" As the boat suddenly jars to a stop against something rocky, causing her to bolt upright.

Her feeling and expression turns euphoric upon seeing a white rocky shore past that thick fog. She darts her hands for the strings of her life preserver before looking down to undo them. She pulls her life preserver off and lays it down. Next is the mooring line she picks up and crawls up to the prow and clips it in. With the rope spooled around her shoulder, Linda carefully slides off the prow and steps into the water. Given the boulders and the angle of the shoreline, she has to practically crawl up until she arrives at a concrete basin with a chainlink fence stretching off in either direction. Linda grips the fence then removes the mooring line and threads it through the mesh and ties it off.

Next, she climbs up to stand erect in front of that fence and fits her toes in through the mesh at the bottom and grips them in order to understand its height to her own. She discovers that the fence is nearly as tall as herself. She knows that this will not be easy, especially with the braided ends of the wires sticking up slightly.

"I can do this."

Linda gets a firm clasp of the top of the fence with both hands, arms spaced and pushes herself upward. Back on that island she had learned to climb trees and became proficient at it, much of it involving raising herself up by grabbing hold of a thick branch. Next, she swings her right leg over while quickly swiveling her left hand one hundred and eighty degrees, being careful to keep her crotch high off the fence. Taking a deep breath, she quickly swings her other leg over while quickly placing her right hand in front of her left one, thumbs touching.

Linda attempts to land cleanly, but stumbles and falls upon her bottom, causing her to gasp and grimace from a jab of pain, but is otherwise unharmed.

"That went well."

It is at that moment that a weight vanishes from her. She feels so light. So rejuvenated and reinvigorated. She presses her palms against her face as she starts crying. After so long a time alone, she has finally come home.


	3. Chapter 2

Linda takes a deep breath and stands. She looks back at the boat, wondering if the line is tight enough for the moment.

"I hope that boat is returned to its rightful owner . . . Now to figure out where the hell I am."

She cannot make out anything in this thick fog. All that she is able to see is a flat plain of pavement going in either direction with another chain linked fence up ahead. Linda walks across the pavement. The sound of her feet slapping against the smooth pavement sounds relieving to her. Once up at that fence, she finds herself peering down at another paved road that goes into a dark tunnel. There were large words above that tunnel entrance, but most of the letters had fallen off and can no longer be made sense of.

She looks at a building looming over that tunnel entrance and walks up to it. She locates a steel door and tries the knob, only to find it locked.

"If it's not one bloody thing, it's another . . . Hey, is there anybody in there?!" As she pounds on the door with her fist, but nobody answers.

Linda decides to walk along the side with the metal fence and comes upon a section of the fence that has fallen over inside, giving her a perfect walk in. She groans over not investigating beforehand as she lowers her head and presses her hand against her forehead momentarily before continuing her walk. She soon reaches the end and can make out a huge bridge looming large as it disappears into the thick fog.

"That's some bridge!"

Linda crosses the road to find that it is actually two bridges for traffic going in different directions, with their respective roads melding together at that tunnel. She crosses the roads and reaches more shoreline cordoned off by a chain link fence.

"So this is a tiny island then, meant to be a stopping point for that bridge." She looks back at that bridge. "Maybe I should just walk on it. I'm not gonna wait around here for someone and no fuckin' way I'm going through that tunnel. Too dark . . . So yeah, I think I'll walk it."

She walks on that bridge, taking the left lane over as she will meet oncoming traffic and move in time. Since it is extremely foggy and there are no sidewalks, this will make it dangerous. After a long time walking, Linda takes notice of something.

"Where is the traffic?"

Linda reaches another islet. The fog has lightened somewhat and the sun is up, yet it is still very thick as it casts a redness over the ocean's horizon. Her stomach is already growling. Something that she is able to endure. She has yet to encounter a vehicle.

"Is this bridge closed down or something?"

It is sunrise by the time Linda reaches the end of that bridge and is on another islet. She stands before another tunnel with a building looming over it, identical to the other one from back where she had arrived. This also has most of the letters gone from its sign, though she is able to make out, Tunnel. She walks up to that building to see if there is anyone in there either, only to discover that it too is locked up and returns to the entrance of that tunnel beneath her and stares into it. The darkness seems to swallow the light.

She stands there in silence as she is feeling bewildered and staring at that engulfing darkness within with a wry expression. Thoughts of vehicles happening upon her and running her over dominate her mind. But if that is to be the case, then she should have met at least a dozen before now.

"Shouldn't those be on?" As she stares at the florescent light fixtures that are off. "This bridge really is closed down . . . Then I just hope that I can reach land before they open it again."

Linda then stares at the maintenance path that is elevated and has a metal railing.

"Maybe I don't need to be careful of cars and trucks." And she walks up the stairs to it.

"That's better." Satisfaction in her tone. "Now all I need to be careful of is stubbing my foot against the railing."

She starts walking. Taking a moment to test the steel doors there to find them locked.

The further she walks, the darker it gets. She starts slowing her pace and touching the smooth cold concrete wall or cold metal railing next to her so as not to stray and end up stubbing her toes into the railing. Every now and again, she looks back to see that the tunnel is gradually receding in size and brightness. Soon, she can see only a pinprick, but continues forward. The darkness continues to deepen and she feels as if she is drifting along and even starts seeing splashes of light in front of her eyes. Now that the light source she kept looking back at is too faint and distant, it truly feels disorienting. Only the touch of the wall keeps her grounded.

Linda steps carefully and tentatively, feeling as if she is about to fall or bump into something. It is so dark and quiet. She slaps the wall or taps the railing to hear the echo. Her breath seems loud through her skull. Lights and flashes dance before her eyes.

"Oh fuck!" As she jumps at the sight of a pair of headlights. But it was only her imagination. "Goddamn it, when will this end?!"

She keeps trudging along through a darkness so profound that it seems irrelevant to keep her eyes opened or closed. Linda looks back once again but it is now as dark behind her as it is in front of her. The profound darkness seems to weigh upon her, causing her breathing to deepen and her heart to pound harder. Fear claws at her.

"Oh, no, no, no, no, Linda! No!" As she goes down on her knees. The concrete pressing painfully against them. "You will not panic here! You will not fuckin' panic . . . ! You lived on that island alone and naked for all that time!"

Although it was out in the open and not underground.

"Come on, get a grip! You're almost out of here . . . ! Just keep walking forward!"

Linda falls silent while keeping her head bowed as she takes deep breaths. She finally gets a rein on her fear and stands, touching the wall and railing to get her bearings once again and continues onward. This time with a little more pace. Given that she has yet to meet a vehicle causes her to suspect that the bridge is truly closed.

"Either it's too foggy or the bridge is being repaired."

The profound darkness is monotonous. One foot going ahead of the other. Time seems to have stopped. Flashes and light squiggles dance before her vision.

"Just keep walking. Just keep walking."

It does not allow for time to fly any quicker.

She begins to notice something whenever she closes her eyes and opens them: a pinpoint of light disappearing and reappearing. She keeps walking.

"That's the exit . . . ! Yes!" Her shout reverberates off the walls around her. "Yes! You're going to get out of here!"

The closer she gets, the large it gets and the brighter it gets inside so that she can see around better. She no longer has to touch the wall and is able to quicken her pace. The moment finally comes as she walks out of that tunnel and into the light of day. She stops and takes a deep breath, feeling relieved that ordeal is now over. It is still morning and the fog is still thick. She arrives before another bridge just like the one back behind her. Taking a look back she sees that there are a couple of other buildings along with the maintenance building, including an enclosed walkway over the road.

"Maybe I should-No, I wanna keep going."

As with the other bridge far behind, Linda also walks upon this one. After a long walk, she sees the shoreline in the fog and it's not another islet.

"Ah, finally! Land . . . ! Now what to do when I get there . . . ? Of course, I'll tell someone, hopefully a police officer, about all this. Probably won't believe me at first and take me to the looney bin . . . Get the media involved and they'll be able to verify who I am . . . Agh, I just hope they'll allow me to clean up and wear proper clothing before getting me on tv . . . Hope everyone's okay."

Seemingly from out of the fog up ahead as she gets closer appears a pair of high concrete barriers, both blocking off their respective lanes to and from the bridge. As she gets closer, she can see that they are higher than she is tall and tinged with green. Linda frowns with bewilderment over their presence and walks up to the one in front of her and touches it. That is when she notices that the greenish tinge is actually moss.

Linda looks around, unable to see any sense of repairs going on. That is when she takes notice of the cracks in the pavement. She is at a lost for words.

She simple climbs over that barrier in her way and walks onward. It was meant to stop drivers, not pedestrians. The houses nearby are strangely silent. She reaches the end and sees the traffic of vehicles going left or right. Yet all are simply parked there, and some with their doors still open. It is so quiet.

"What the hell is goin' on?! And where are the people?!"

She walks up to the silent traffic, only to experience bewilderment and gawk around speechlessly. Those vehicles are on the street in their respective lanes. All of them have flat tires and rusting bodies. Grass and flowers have grown up around many of them through the cracks that now pit the street. She finally notices the houses across the street, many with their windows and doors boarded up. Though some still have their doors open. Their lawns growing wild and some have their fences crumbling from rot.

Linda resumes walking, but in a dazed and confused manner. She silently wonders if this is Africa, but then remembers how the sun had set over the land yesterday and the sun rose over the ocean. Mexico then? Somehow, that don't seem right.

She continues walking forward while rubber necking around. Her bewilderment is intense as her eyes are wide and vacant. She stops before a red car with the driver's door still open and absently clasps hold of its edge while continuing to look around. She returns her attention to that car as she absently swings the door repeatedly, making it creak with each movement due to the rust.

Linda continues standing there dumbfounded while rubbernecking more quickly at the sight of neglect and abandonment all around her as she continues swinging that car door.

She finally lets go and trudges around the front of the car as she repeatedly touches it while continuing with her bewildered rubbernecking. Once around it, she starts rubbing her left arm while fixing her bewildered gaze upon a small house in front of her. Some of the windows are boarded up, though with few boards and done sloppily. The door is still open.

Linda trudges across its yard and enters the abandoned house. There is furniture and shelves with odds and ends, along with a flatscreen tv. The ceiling is covered with large stains and moss grows on the carpet. Insects fly and crawl around. Spiders have made their webs in the corners. Those don't bother her because she had gotten used to waking up in the morning with a bug or two, sometimes more, crawling on her. She stuck pieces of leaves in her ears, even though none had ever crawled in them. Sometimes she had awakened to discover that a spider had made its web in the same room with her, with part of it attached to her. And those were big spiders too. It had been hard at first because she kept freaking out, but over time she had gotten used enough to where she would only act with a controlled disgust.

She gasps at the sight of a rat perched on the couch. The only vertebrates that lived on that island with her were the birds and they usually gave her a wide berth. The rat stands up on its haunches sniffing the air while looking at her. Linda readies herself to run in case that rat decides to attack her. But it pounces across the couch and disappears into a gnawed out corner of the couch.

Linda notices a picture on a shelf and walks over to it and picks it up, disturbing woodlice and bugs. The glass has a crack in it going the full width of the frame at a diagonal and covered with mildew, but is otherwise still intact to save the picture. She wipes the picture on her tattered top to clean the glass. It smudges, but she is still able to see the picture.

It is the picture of a reasonable well-off White family with a smiling husband and wife that look to be in their thirties. The husband has dark hair with a trimmed goatee and green eyes; the wife has long blond hair and blue eyes. They have two smiling children, a blond-haired bluish-green eyed boy of about ten and a light brown haired girl with blue eyes who looks about seven.

Linda feels her mind reeling, causing her to drop the picture. Her legs grow weak and she does a pratfall. She sits there for a few seconds before recovering and slowly getting back up. She looks down at that picture that had managed to fall facing upward. She wants more proof that this is indeed the United States of America.

She goes off in search of answers and ends up in a hallway with the bedroom doors open. She enters the boy's bedroom, judging by its decor. There is a bookcase nearby and posters are on the wall. The bed still looks neat. It appears as if the family had only left for a moment and will return. Linda walks up to a bookcase and looks them over. She takes out a book about computers and flips through it to find English words. She puts that book back and takes out another.

She ends up going through the whole bookcase and is still not satisfied. Next is another room. The girl's, judging by the decor. There is also a bookcase in there and she checks that one out too. Nothing that answers her question.

"Come on, Linda, think, think!" As she slaps her own head. "Think!"

This seems to work as her logic starts working again. The parents room will definitely have something. Possibly even an addressed envelope from a letter that they received. With her head now cleared, she hurries off to their parent's bedroom.

Upon entering, she sees a desk and opens a drawer to rifle through its contents.

"Yes!" As she pulls an addressed envelope out and holds it aloft. She carefully reads the mailing address, printed in large clear font showing a computer printout, especially the bottom just below the street address.

Virginia Beach, Virginia.

Linda blinks absently and this time reads it aloud. Again, the address is what it is. Her mind starts reeling once again and she gaps wide-eyed with her mouth slightly agape as her mind stretches once again. Her legs weaken and she does a pratfall, feeling as if everything is a dream.

"No, no, it can't be! It's impossible!"

Her mind starts racing for a reason. Maybe this is a letter from their home back in America. No, that was the mailing address she had been reading. And there is no return address.

Linda clasps the letter absently and feels a letter inside. She quickly takes it out and sees that it's printed in capital lettering. She reads it aloud.

"Be advised that all residents living in the Virginia City and its vicinity will face mandatory evacuation starting at eight am on October the seventeenth, two thousand and thirteen. All citizens are to present proper registration and documentation and are subject to medical evaluation if need be. Any who resist authorities will be detained."

She falls silent.

"Mandatory evacuation?" Those words seem to leap out at her, then lowers the letter while raising her other hand and pressing her fingers against her forehead. She has a faraway stare with her mouth hanging open.

"What the fuck happened here?!"

Something else comes to her as a shockwave.

"Virginia?!" As she straightens suddenly "But that's north of where I wanted to go . . . ! Then how the hell did I-of course, the Gulf Current! That carried me north while I slept . . . ! At least I kept that compass over the W the whole time . . . Or did I . . . ?! Now that I remember, that W was always under that red line whenever I happened to look at it . . . ! Was it really stuck that way the whole time?!"

She looks at that letter once again and notices that the word, medical, is mentioned twice, showing that it is all about the health of the locals.

"Disease . . . ? Then . . . ? How extensive did this become . . . ?! Was it only here, or did it affect all of America . . . ?! Or the world even?!"

More questions on top of questions.

Linda suddenly discovers that she can take whatever she wants. The idea sends a ticklish tingling feeling through her palms and groin. She groans with effort as she momentarily presses her fingers against her forehead. Priorities, she has to get her priorities straight. Even if she is going to take things from this place, they must be practical things like food and clothing. Toiletries are another good thing too.

She searches for the kitchen, walking past the oval maple dining table which seats six and polished to a sheen. Its chairs are also maple. Once in the kitchen, Linda flicks a switch to verify no electricity. In the gloom, the walls seem to be yellow with seemingly blue stripes. The counter tops are grey marble with black streaks, with maple cabinets and pantries.

Linda does a double take upon noticing a calendar hanging from the wall with a painted scene of a river flowing through a forested mountain. She walks up to it and stares intently at the month of October. The year is twenty thirteen. There is something written in black ink within the seventeenth day and takes the calendar off the wall and walks up to the window to get a better view of it. The word, Evacuation, is written there, ending with three exclamation points and triple underlined. Just like that letter that she had found.

An idea suddenly comes to her.

"Of course! The newspapers!"

And she sets about searching for them. She finds a small stack of them in the backdoor porch within a blue plastic box with the symbol for recycling. She carries it out into the living room in front of the door for added light. She begins taking out the papers and searches through them, noticing that they are all in chronological order, going back in time bottom down. An easy choice as she starts with the paper at the bottom. That is when she notices that the papers are getting thinner going up.

She starts with the one for September the twenty-fifth. There is nothing printed about any diseases, but she does find a heading over some column.

"College student yet to be found," she read the heading, then reads through it and discovers that it's all about her.

Linda feels relieved to learn that the boat had survived and everyone else had made it back to shore. The coast guards claimed that they were continuing the search, but were not holding onto any hopes of ever finding her. Linda takes a deep breath and closes her eyes, causing a tear to trickle down her cheek, knowing that they were proved right.

She continues her search through the rest of the other newspapers. With each one she checks, she notices that there are stories about people attacking other people in the same manner that a rabid dog would, to the point of either killing or severely injuring them. Those stories become more dominant with each paper she reads, which in turn take up more of the paper.

With each paper she reads, she learns about tens of thousands of people around the world, especially here in America, becoming infected or dying at their hands. It turns into hundreds of thousands. Then millions.

And the cause of all this madness is a mutant strain of a fungus called Ophiocordyceps Universalis. It goes on to state that the mutant strain infects humans by growing all over their brain, thereby taking over their consciousness and compelling them to attack and bite healthy people by hyper stimulating their brain's limbic system. In one of those papers, she reads that they had managed to create a vaccine. Then the next one states that it didn't work, causing riots to take place.

Throughout all those reports are of the increasing consequences of this disease as it also sparks panic, which causes riots and urban flight. People having to contend with loved ones turning into feral beasts. Tourists and foreigners fleeing back to their countries. Nations across the world declaring states of emergencies, especially the United States of America. Borders shutting down and all further travel being restricted. Religious fanatics proclaiming it to be God's wrath. Conspiracy theories running rampant, causing people to search for scapegoats, which in turn caused them to brutally attack innocent people. Public services becoming increasingly unreliable as deliveries began getting affected. Brownouts, then blackouts. Nations ultimately imposing martial law. Here in the United States that came with a twofold directive: exterminate the infected and herd the healthy into quarantine zones.

But the numbers of dead and infected continue to rise into the tens of millions, then hundreds of millions. And finally, billions.

Linda comes to the last newspaper, dated October the sixteenth, consisting of only a single sheet with print on both sides. The heading is in font so large that it covers that entire side.

ALMOST TWO THIRDS OF HUMANITY DEAD,  
MORE STILL GETTING INFECTED.

And on the other side is one big column printed with font that is also large enough so that entire side covers the page. It reads that America's President and Vice President became infected, so the Secretary of Defense had to be sworn in after having retreated with the remnants of the American Government into an undisclosed bunker. All of the nations on Earth have become saturated in chaos, with a claim that P'yongyang, the capital of North Korea, was nuked. As was Iran's capitol, Tehran. The American military is bombing America's major cities, with two of them being Boston, Massachusetts and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, causing Linda to gasp.

The column ends with the following words: thank you for your readership, and farewell.


	4. Chapter 3

Linda lowers the newspaper, making the paper rattle, and seems to stare at something off in the distance with wide-eyed open mouth shock. She blinks absently as she is stunned into silence. Her mind reels from this revelation and slowly tilts her head forward to press the palm of her hand against her forehead. Her mind begins stretching and everything seems to take on a fake quality to her. She begins to wonder if she is dreaming this whole thing. Yet, she had spent the last twenty years on that island, waking up each and every day to that unmistakable fact. Then there is the rest of that abandoned neighborhood outside that she had walked through.

That is when she thinks about her family and her face twists with grief. She starts sobbing, causing tears to trickle down her cheeks. She wonders if they are still alive after all this time, or did they all succumb to the horrors of this new world. She wants to know if they are still alive.

She needs to know.

Linda sniffs and rubs her hand down her face and lowers it with a gasp. Her expression is pained as she tries to rein in her emotions. She wonders how something like this had happened.

"Where they hell did this fungus come from?!"

Getting up, she decides to scrounge up some food. Since there is none to be found in here, she figures that she should check out the rest of the neighborhood, particularly the homes with their doors still closed. Linda puts the newspapers back in the way they were and returns them to where she had found them. She leaves the house and looks up and down the street.

"Which way . . . ? Aw, what the hell, west."

She walks along, trying to figure out which house she should break into. Any one of those houses might have some food in them. Canned food that is, and with the cans undamaged.

Cars, trucks, and vans line the road and are even parked on lawns. She reflects on what those newspapers had claimed.

"So a fungus had caused all this . . .?! By turning people violent . . . ?!" She suddenly feels a chill run down her spine and quickly darts a look around like a bird. "So they might be nearby then?!"

She takes a deep breath and calms herself. "No, wait, I never ran into any of them yet, so they must've all died off."

It all sees so surreal to her. She remembers a video game from back when she was a teenager called Quiet Mountain. In it, the player must have their character go through a town named as such while fending off monsters that resemble their psyche. She feels as if she is a character in that game and idly wonders when such monsters will appear.

Those hastily boarded up houses show that they wanted to protect their property, but were in too much of a hurry to get out. Having too many vehicles on the road meant gridlock and so they decided to abandon their vehicles and walk.

"Now which house should I go into . . . ? I got it, I'll go into the first two story house with its door still closed . . . If it's locked, then I'll break out a window."

Her thoughts are broken by the sight of a white two-story house with a black roof and trimmings. Its windows and door are boarded up. There is a green car parked in the driveway but like the rest of the vehicles, its paint is peeling, revealing rust underneath, and its tires are flat. Linda flirts with the idea that maybe the backdoor is not boarded up and goes around to the back, coming upon a swing set of wooden frame.

"Not boarded up." She opens the storm door and checks the knob. "And not locked?!"

She enters the dim interior to find that there are more furnishings and that musky barred up smell. There is a flatscreen tv propped up in a cabinet, along with leather furniture around. There is a polished maple table with matching chairs near another room that is the kitchen.

Linda walks into the kitchen to look for something to eat. She opens one cabinet and gasps at the sight of boxes of cereal. How long has it been since she ate a bowl of cereal?! She selects one, a box called Crispers, corn flakes coated in cinnamon and honey, and places it on the counter. Next, she searches for a bowl and finds a white ceramic one, then finds a spoon in a drawer. She would have put milk on that, but that would not be possible. This does compel her to open the fridge, which she promptly closes from the smell that twists her face up. As did the sight in there.

Linda sits at the dining table and begins eating. The cereal has a dry musty flavor, but is not unappetising. After finishing her cereal, she looks for something else in the pantries and comes across multivitamins and even a protein shake powder. She also finds a jar of olives, black to be exact.

"Ugh, black olives. Why did it have to be black olives? I hate those . . . But . . . I did hate eating bugs though."

And opens the jar, pours the pickling juice down the sink, and dumps the olives into the bowl from which she eats them. She goes back to look for more stuff.

"Yes, pineapple slices!" As she hefts the can, knowing that there is juice in it to drink. "Can opener, can opener." As she searches through the drawers for one. "Yes!" As she finds one and holds it up.

She opens it and tastes the juice, finding it to still have that tart sweetness. She drinks it up then eats the slices. She also finds a pack of crackers and takes those, along with a jar of peanut butter. For this she finds a buttering knife. Linda finally gets around to turning on the water and is not surprised to get only a gurgling from the pipes.

The next place she checks out are the bedrooms. First off, she passes a computer on a desk that is set into the wall in the hallway. The parents clearly must have been concerned about internet use. She finds the master bedroom on the first floor. There is a double bed with a green plush comforter and blue linens with matching pillow cases.

"Oh shit!" As she is startled by the sight of her fresh youthful face being instantly replaced by an older weathered one that is reddened, freckled, and filled out.

She stares at her reflection in that mirror. The light of the day outside spilling onto it as the window facing east is almost directly across from it as she can see it over her shoulder. Its curtains open. She raises both her hands up to touch her face. It seems as if she is looking back at a hard-eyed stranger with thoroughly unkempt hair. The past twenty years hits home like a sledgehammer as her face scrunches up with her grief and her throat tightens while tears flow down her cheeks.

"I'm so old."

Linda lowers her hands and next tries the taps at the sink, but they too produce a gurgling sound. It looks like taking a bath is out of the question. She searches around to find that the hygiene products are gone, as are the towels and washing cloths. This she expected as from what she had been reading back out there.

She checks out the walk-in closet and hits the jackpot upon finding some women's clothes in there. They are mostly dresses, fancy ones too, but those will not do and she continues her search for more practical clothing. She finds more women's clothing, mostly slacks and shirts and decides to take those. Now if she can only find underwear and socks next and checks the drawers and finds three pairs of underwear and four brassieres, all of which appear to be in her size. There are only two pairs of women's socks though, but it is better than not finding any socks.

Linda stares at that bed and walks up to it. She leans forward and presses her hands into the mattress, feeling the springiness of it. She ironically removes the ragged remains of her pyjamas and flops down face first onto that bed, relishing the combination of firmness and softness.

She pulls down the sheets and crawls into that bed, ignoring her lack of hygiene, and covers up as she places her head on the pillow and groans with delight. The soft yet firm feel of the bed combined with the softness of the sheets overwhelm her, for it has been too long since she had slept in a nice warm bed.

"Much too long."

After a series of confusing images, Linda is suddenly aware of feeling oddly well-rested. She wonders why she feels this way when she only laid down for a moment. She opens her eyes and gives a start at how dark it now is, like inside that tunnel.

"What the hell?! Nighttime already?!" Darting upward in bed with a gasp to see that it is truly dark. She gets out and hurries up to a window to look outside and see that it is actually night time. She doesn't even remember having fallen asleep.

"Now where are those pyjamas?" As she carefully walks to the end of the bed and gropes around on the floor. "Ah, there they are."

After putting them back on, she carefully treads her way out to the living room to the back door and opens it, getting a feel of the cool night. She steps outside, closing the door behind her and walks out while looking up at the night sky. It is now clear and the moon is out. She wonders if she has slept most of the night away and goes out onto the street to search for the horizon. She looks all around, but cannot see even the faintest orange over the east or west horizons, showing that it is well into night.

She stands there and listens intently. It is so silent, just like the nights back on that island. There is no wind, further enhancing the silence. She can only hear her own breathing, along with the hiss in her eardrums. That is when she hears something. Something distant. She cannot make it out as it is much too distant to hear clearly. She holds her breath and listens as intently as she can. After long seconds, it comes again. Like screeching howls, followed by wailing.

"What the . . . ? Some animal?"

Now she wonders if its those fungus infected people she had read about, and returns inside. She makes her way to that master bedroom and strips down, then covers up once again.

The awareness of lost time comes to Linda once again and she opens her eyes to see that the gloom of dawn has brighten the room. She gets up and dresses, then looks out the window to see that it is definitely brighter. At least it is clear and not like it was twenty-four hours ago.

She sits on the side of the bed and looks at where she lay. Next, she slips off the bed and kneels next to it, then sprawls across it. She opens her eyes again and quickly raises her head, knowing that she had dozed off for a longer time because it is brighter now and the sunlight is streaming in through the sloppily boarded up window.

Now she can check out the rest of the house. There are three other bedrooms and they all show that children had lived there, with one of them possibly being no more than ten years old. A girl, judging by one room. The other two were older children, two teenaged boys. One boy's room has sports paraphernalia, a brother who was a jock, and the other has more scholarly pursuits, a brother who would have been labeled a nerd. Neither of them have video games in them, even though one of them has a television set. Again, it points to serious parenting.

Linda checks the drawers and closets of each to find that they are mostly empty.

"Yes, just what I need." As she finds a road atlas of North America in the scholarly boy's room and lays it on his bed. A further search reveals no personal care products in either of them. Next is the other bathroom. It has a dark green bathtub with a shower head and a matching sink. This one has more hygiene and toiletry products in it, such as soap. A bottle of shampoo was even left behind too.

"Damn, but I want a bath or shower so badly." As she holds that soap and shampoo. "Haven't had one since I got to that island . . . Looks like a pond or stream will have to do . . . At least there are no people around . . . But what about those . . . infected . . . ? They sound pretty savage . . . I wonder if I'm the last person on Earth . . . No, there has to be other people out there . . . Just hope they're not infected by this fungus."

Linda returns to that master bedroom and gathers those clothes. Then realizes that she didn't check out the basement and looks toward a closed door with a turn latch on its knob. She goes over and opens it to find that it does leads to the basement. It is also dark down there as well, but not too dark to see as the windows help. They have security bars on them.

"Hope none of those infected are down there."

Then realizes that if that was the case, they would have been running out at her. She keeps the door open, wanting to allow extra light down there.

She descends the wooden staircase. It creaks under each step she makes and she keeps a firm grip on the railing. The smell of mildew permeates the darkened interior. She fears that all those years of neglect will mean a rotten staircase. Upon reaching the concrete bottom she can get a better look around. In the dimness she can make out various odds and ends such as chairs, boxes, and even an artificial coniferous tree. All of which are scattered around the place. Behind the stairs is another room with a pair of wide openings on either end, yet too wide to be doorways. It is very dark beyond that as there are no windows in that room.

Linda walks around to get a closer look, all while expecting that door above to suddenly shut on its own. She walks over to the tool bench and notices that there is a flashlight on it and takes it, then clicks the switch.

"All right." As its light comes one.

Now she can see around the place even better. Such as a pair of powder blue hikers next to the dryer. She takes the shoes and puts them on, finding them somewhat constraining after not having worn footwear for so long. She puts them on and does the laces up.

"Nice, nice, nice, nice." As she dances around briefly, not caring that they are slightly on the big side.

Linda shines the light into that dark room and notices something up against the wall. She walks in there and up to it.

"Yes, just what the doctor ordered." As she grabs the backpack. It is a fairly large back pack made of thick blue nylon that looks to be in pretty good condition. She thought it odd that someone would just leave it here, then thought that the people who left it behind could not take anything else. Given that it was an evacuation to one of those quarantine zones, they took only what they needed.

Linda nods in approval with a feeling of satisfaction and takes it. Taking one more look around with the light for anything else that may grab her fancy, she leaves out the way she came in. She passes the tool bench and takes a brief glance at it, noticing a hatchet and a sheathed knife.

"These could be useful." As she takes them. "And this." Taking the clawhammer. After finding a piece of cloth, she wraps them up and stores them in her backpack. Despite her hurry, she takes a look around for more batteries, but does not find any more.

Back in that other bathroom, she takes a toothbrush, toothpaste, and dental floss. If she had any water, she would be brushing her teeth by now. She returns to the master bedroom.

"What should I wear?" Then looks down at herself and frowns. "Nah, I'll wait until I get a chance to clean up."

She packs her new clothes into her backpack and returns to the other bathroom to pack a couple of towels, washing cloths, and a bar of soap into it as well. Back in the kitchen, she takes the remaining food that can be eaten as is, along with the can-opener, some utensils, and a thick plastic cup as well. The vitamins and protein powder shake she definitely packs.

Inside a drawer are a pair of scissors and is about to pack them when she stops to stare at them and touches her hair. Returning to the bathroom, she stares at herself in the mirror. With a sigh, she clasps a crusty tangled lock of her hair and cuts it off near the scalp, leaving a patch of stubble. She drops it into the sink and repeats. It is awkward though.

That sink starts filling up with locks of red hair until it becomes full. Linda lifts her head to look at her reflection and feels her now fuzzy hair all over.

"Just like a buzzcut."

An idea comes to her and she goes off to look for any newspapers. Just like in the first house, she finds a batch in a recycling box and manages to find the newspaper with that article about her. She folds it carefully to expose the said article, then places the paper on the table and circles it. Next, she looks for some paper and finds it in the living room, along with a pen. She returns to the table and writes down the following:

_June 28, 2033_

_Dear reader:_

_I am the one in that article that I had circled. On September 23, 2013, I was washed off a sailing ship somewhere in the Bahamas and managed to swim to an island the following day, which turned out to be abandoned due to a building still there. I lived there alone until June 24, 2033 when a motorboat came floating by. I swam out to it and found that it had enough fuel for me to travel for three days until I came ashore at what I later discovered to be Virginia Beach, because I couldn't recognize anything due to the desolation._

_I broke into this house and found newspapers that revealed what had happened. I had absolutely no idea that some horrible fungus had broken out and turned people into homicidal maniacs. I managed to find some supplies. Hopefully, I will reach my home up in Pittsburgh and find out if my family survived, or anyone else I knew from there._

_P.S. Excuse all the hair in the bathroom sink, I never had a chance to groom during my time on that island._

Linda does not bother signing it, letting the article speak for herself. She returns to that road atlas of North America she had found and looks for the state of Virginia. Next, its Virginia City. She also learns that the bridge she had walked upon was the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel. She locates Pennsylvania then Pittsburgh and traces her finger back to Virginia Beach.

"That's a fuckin' long way."

She closes the atlas and packs it, along with the pen, into her backpack and hefts it onto her shoulders. Linda looks around one more time and takes her leave.

Outside, it is a warm clear day. More of the neighborhood can be seen now. There are some gulls and crows flying around, along with other birds. She closes the door and walks to the sidewalk. Once again, she takes off her backpack and takes out the road atlas. Using the Chesapeake Bay Bridge as a reference point, she determines the best route to take out of the city is south. She has no intentions of ever crossing one of those two bridges just to the west of her that lead north, the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel and the Monitor-Merrimac Memorial Bridge Tunnel, because of the underwater tunnels she will need to go through. Having gone through the pervious one was bad enough.

She decides to go south and traces out a route to take to the freeway. Upon finishing, she thinks of something else.

"A bike . . . What about a bike?"

She goes over to a shed on the property and looks inside, but cannot see anything. She tries the padlock, but it is secure.

"Screw it . . . Maybe I'll find another place with a bike."

Taking one more look at her atlas, she begins walking. All around her is almost twenty years of neglect. Such is the post-apocalyptic world.

Post-apocalyptic. That thought finally hits home. All those various movies, tv shows, books, and even video games about nuclear wars, asteroid strikes, plagues, and even zombies apocalypses, makes her serious think about this brave new world. This post-apocalyptic world. She never thought that she would be alive for this.

Even more astounding for her is that she would have never thought that she would be late to the apocalypse.

* * *

**Note: Quiet Mountain is a shout out to Silent Hill**.


	5. Chapter 4

Linda searches throughout the properties on her path; only to be met with locked doors, boarded up windows, secured storage sheds, and pools that have either dried up or turned into swamps. It is as if the owners had thought that they were simply going to return after this whole problem had blown over.

As the possible numbers of insecure sheds dwindle with each visit, Linda becomes increasingly frustrated. She no longer cares what kind of bicycle it is as long as it's big enough for her to ride on. The more her frustration grows, the more intensely she checks those locks and begins storming away. And the more she begins cursing.

"Maybe I should've checked every fuckin' shed on this part of the fuckin' city, but there's not enough hours in the fuckin' day and I wanna be out of this . . . ghost city, and as far away as possible! Argh, this is pissing me off so bad!"

Linda storms around to the back of another house and up to a metal shed with white walls and a black roof. Instead of clasping that lock, she kicks it with a shout of frustration, making it ring against the metal.

The lock comes undone.

"Oh, you gotta be shittin' me . . . ! Maybe the owners neglected this."

She quickly undoes the lock and opens the door.

"Oh, this has gotta be too good to be true!"

As she looks at four bicycles, especially at the one that is a woman's bike. It is a green and white three-speed with a black vinyl seat, fenders, and hand breaks. It is in excellent condition as the chain is still greasy. Being sheltered against the sun and rain definitely has something to do with its preservation. The only problem is that the tires are flat, owning to the air having leaked out. Something that can be easily fixed as she spots the bike tire pump on a shelf next to a pink helmet with purple stripes that appears to match her head size.

Linda takes the pump and quickly goes to work pumping up those tires.

"Yeah, that'll do just fine." As she pinches the tires to find them hard.

She packs the bicycle pump away into her backpack. Searching around yields a bicycle repair kit that includes a spare chain.

Untying her laces, she removes her boots and ties the tip of the laces together and tucks them back into her boots so as to prevent them from getting caught up in the chain. She puts on the pink helmet with purple stripes and wheels the bike outside. She pauses to close the door, pushes up the bike stand with her foot, and gets on the bike.

"It's been a very long time, but I can still do this."

And she starts peddling. For a second, it had been awkward, but her body instantly remembers and she peddles more quickly now and casually rides the bike on down the center of the street. She sighs with relief and feels as if gliding along.

"Yeah, I knew I could still do this . . . Now then, how long will it take for me to get to Pittsburgh by bike? Just hope that it don't break down along the way to beyond repair."

As she is riding down another street, she hears someone moaning off to her right and stops. She listens intently to find that it sounds like someone is in pain. The moaning turns into a brief wail.

Linda sneers as she carefully gets off her bike, not bothering to kick the stand down and just lays it on its side, and slowly approaches the high fence.

"H-Hello? A-Are you okay?"

The person immediately shrieks and garbles and the fence shivers as the sound of something slamming into it is heard from it. Next comes the sounds of clawing and banging on the board. All of which startles Linda.

"Wha-What's wrong with you?!"

The person's garbled ravings become more intense, more . . . desperate.

Linda decides to sneak around to one side of the fence to get a better look at whoever that is. The person does not seem to have noticed her doing this as they keep up their assault on that side where Linda had been. She clasps the top of the fence and carefully pulls herself up to peek over without making any noise.

She can now see that the person is a man, who is almost back on to her as he claws and slaps at that fence while continuing to screech and garble nonsense. He is White and of medium height but with a thick build, one of muscle rather than fat, and light brown hair. He is wearing blue jeans, a faded blue denim shirt, and sneakers. His skin looks pallid with the veins popping out.

"Hey, what's wrong with you?!"

The man stops and darts a look at her. He has a receding hairline framing a squarish face with a frightened, as opposed to frightening, expression. Linda is taken aback by the sight of his wide buggy yellowish eyes that are eerily askew, like a chameleon's.

"What's wrong with-" Linda began.

The man screams and charges at her. Linda is quick to let go and fall back before he can grab her. She sits on the ground stunned as the full knowledge from those newspapers finally hits home and now understands that she is dealing with one of the infected.

The man continues his wailing and assaulting of the fence. This time, he also tries to climb over it. She finds that his cries seem to sound tortured.

Linda beats a hasty retreat to her bike and awkwardly tries to mount it, only to have her feet slip off in her attempts at pedaling away. She forces herself to stop and take a moment to relax upon seeing that the man is still in that spot and has yet to get over that fence. With her mind calmed a bit, if only a bit, Linda mounts her bike successfully and pedals away as fast as she can. Every now and again, she hazards a glance back over her shoulder to see if that man had successfully climbed that fence. Or if anyone else like him who might have been around and heard. So far, no one.

After several minutes of hard pedaling, Linda hazards a glance back to see that no one is chasing her, so she stops pedaling and coasts along. After most of the momentum disappears through air friction, Linda finally clasps the breaks, then steadies the bike with both feet planted firmly on the asphalt. She next takes a deep breath and leans forward to rest her head upon the handlebars, then closes her eyes. She stays that way for awhile and is at a loss for words.

After getting her second wind, she continues her bike ride. It is a pleasant one as she weaves down streets trying to find the straightest street going south. It is quiet, save for the sounds made by nature. At one point, a deer runs off the road ahead of her and runs back around the property of a house.

Linda comes to the end of the street that she intended to take and takes out her atlas to examine her next route to take. Afterwards, she puts her atlas away and continues onward. As always, there are vehicles here and there and buildings showing signs of decay as nature begins taking it all back. There is a sad beauty to it. Nature regenerating and reclaiming what had once kept it back while humans seem to be no more.

"I can't be the only normal person left. That evacuation notice I found about those quarantine zones must mean that there are still normal people left."

Linda rides her bike past the abandoned rusting vehicles. She begins noticing that the traffic is bumper to bumper in both lanes on a street that is not a one way street, owing to the desperation of the people escaping. There are also more crashed vehicles as well. She wants to check those cars in the hopes of finding something, except she is eager to keep moving. She tries to imagine what it was like around here those twenty years ago, trying to picture the chaos and panic.

Her thoughts are interrupted upon noticing a suitcase lying on the hood of a brown station wagon up ahead. She stops and gets off her bike to check it out. It is a blue vinyl suitcase, faded from years of exposure to the elements. She opens it to find that it had once belonged to a man as it has male stuff in there and closes it once again, then leaves to resume her travel alongside the eternally stalled traffic.

As she travels further along, she finds more abandoned luggage lying around. So much luggage that she cannot possibly check them all. She does, however, stop and pick up a pink carryall lying on the ground next to a green mini-van, suspecting it to be a woman's bag. She dusts the bugs off and opens it, proving her suspicions right. A search of its contents reveals tampons, much to her relief, and promptly takes them.

She continues along and arrives at that bridge, then stops to take out her atlas and figure out her next route. Once that is done, she continues onward and soon finds herself traveling alongside a brook. She stops and stares down at it.

"Yeah, I think I'll clean up down there." And gets off, footing the kick stand into place.

Linda carefully walks down the slope of the bank to the edge of the brook. It is fairly deep with a rocky bottom. She removes her backpack then her boots and gets her feet wet, finding the water chilly. Finally, she tightly clasps hold of the ragged dirtied remnants of her pyjamas and takes a deep breath to psyche herself up. With a mental effort, she rips off first the top with little effort due to the worn fabric and throws it into the water, watching it drift away then sink as it soaks up the water. Next, are the bottoms in the same fashion and those too sink into the stream.

She rubs her arms as she looks around with a grimace. She feels so exposed and cannot help but get the mental image of one of those infected showing up while she is bathing and attacking her. Taking another deep breath and exhaling, Linda takes out a washcloth, soap, and shampoo and lays them down by the bank. With washcloth in hand, she wades deeper into the chilly water until it is up to her thighs and begins wetting herself over, gasping repeatedly at the coldness before getting used to it.

Linda squats down and submerges completely, then gets back up and returns to shore to pick up the shampoo. She takes a generous amount and lathers her now bristly hair thoroughly, then puts the sudsy washcloth down and next ruffles her fingers through it for awhile to clean her scalp. Next is the soap as she picks both it and the washcloth up and goes to work lathering the rest of herself thoroughly. The washcloth gets soiled, due to the years of gunk that had built up on her skin, and she has to rinse that one out and get another washcloth to slather more soap over herself.

Minutes later, she enters the water once again and wrings the washcloth out in the water, finding it not getting soiled, and starts rinsing off as she dunks and rubs the washcloth over herself repeatedly.

She returns to shore and repeats the whole bathing process once again.

"Okay, I think that's enough." After having rinsed off for what must have been the seventh time and gets out, leaving a trail of suds that flows down the brook behind her.

Linda takes her towel and starts drying off. She notices that she seems cleaner now, and is also relieved that no one had shown up. She takes out the panties and brassiere that she had pilfered and puts them on to discover that they really do match her size. Next are a pair of blue jeans, white socks, and a purple T-shirt. At first, Linda shrugs at the snugness of the fabric, especially on her limbs, for she had gotten used to being naked. She puts her shoes back on and is done.

"Now all I need next is a jacket."

She spreads her towel and wash cloths out over her bike handles and goes to dig around in her backpack for some lunch and takes out some crackers and peanut butter. After finishing, she packs the bottle and box away. The next thing she does is take out her glass and dunk it into the brook for a drink of water.

"Damn it, I should've searched for a water bottle to take."

After rolling up and stuffing the still damp washcloths and towel back into her backpack, she slings it onto her back and puts her helmet back on. As she is about to get back on her bike, she notices a black beetle crawling along on the ground. She picks it up as it attempts to scurry away from her. She stares at that beetle as it snaps at the air before her in the attempt to bite her.

Linda eats that beetle as if it were a piece of steak. Back on that island, this was what she did to supplement her breakfast, lunch, and dinner. She goes on her way once again.

Over ten minutes into her travel, she hears a distant shout and looks to one side and sees someone running toward her. The person is still distant, but is still close enough to make out that they are a woman. Linda now notices the jerky manner in which she is running, and is also screaming and wailing. As that man had been.

"Oh shit!" As her heart skips a beat and she starts pedaling furiously.

She can still hear that woman wailing and screeching far behind her. The fact that she is not calling out to her now drives that understanding home. The woman does not gain on her and is in fact losing ground to Linda's bike. But that woman does not give up in her chase for Linda.

With the traffic no longer bumper to bumper, Linda is able to peddle along more quickly now. Having a runner after her means that she cannot take out her atlas nor slow her mind, causing her memory to get fuzzy.

The runner sounds increasingly distant and pained, prompting Linda to calm a bit and slow her pace. This slows her mind so that she can think more clearly. She sees the freeway up ahead, knowing that it is where she will have to trace out where to go next. By the time she reaches the freeway, she can no longer hear the runner.

The turnoff up to the freeway has no vehicles on it. After reaching the top, she takes the moment to stop and look back to see that the runner is now little more than a speck and is obviously exhausted as it is crawling on its hands and knees. Linda takes this moment to check her atlas once again. She decides to stay on the freeway until reaching the turnoff to Suffolk and go in that direction. Then scoot around the small city and head north.

She packs away her atlas and looks to see that the runner is still crawling toward her, though more slowly and apparently pained this time.

"I bet that woman's gonna run herself to death!"

Linda is soon pedaling down the freeway, hoping that runner will lose sight of her and be unable to continue pursuit, or hopefully drop dead from exhaustion.

She passes more traffic and quickly takes to the side of the freeway where the turnoff will be, and is soon arriving at the turnoff toward Suffolk and goes down that way. She takes a moment to look back to see if she can still see that runner, but no longer can and feels relieved.

Linda continues onward. She takes notice of four houses off to her left at one point that were all burned down. Further along, she notices an airport to her right. She had see it in the atlas. As she arrives at the turnoff, she stops and looks down the short road toward the terminal. It is composed of two large buildings with a multitude of hangers. The parking lot is empty, no surprise, and tufts of grass have grown up through some places on it. She sees a small single engine plane inside the open hanger. Given the size of the runway, it is a small plane airport.

Linda enters the grounds and goes up to a restaurant near it and looks inside. Everything looks as if the owners will be back shortly. She thinks to look for something in there, only to be confronted with locked doors.

"Guess a window has to be broken out." As she takes off her backpack and takes out her hammer. She hauls off and strikes the glass, but only manages to put a slight chip in it. She hits it harder, but the glass still won't break.

She drops her hammer knowing that she will need something heavier for added momentum, so off she goes, looking for a large rock and finds one in a ditch the size of a soccer ball. She picks it up, grunting with the effort to do so, and carries it back.

Upon returning to the window, Linda positions herself and with a yell hurls that rock as hard as she can at it. The rock successfully sails through the window, leaving hundreds of shards in its wake as it continues flying for a couple more feet. Feeling satisfied, she picks up her hammer and knocks out the rest of the glass so as not to cut herself.

Once inside, she searches for the kitchen and once within it searches the cabinets, pantries, and even the fridge. There is nothing edible. She sighs and returns outside and is about to leave when she stares at that plane next to that terminal building further in. It is white on top with a bluish-green bottom. She walks up to that plane and checks through the windows. From the looks of it, it is still in good condition. No rust yet. Though the tires are flat from all the air having leaked out, so refilling them with her bike pump should not be much of a problem.

For she is flirting with the idea of flying.

The idea is outrageous. Dangerous too, for she doesn't know the first thing about flying. It's definitely not like driving a car. She figures that maybe if she were to find the keys first, perhaps she may be better able to come to a conclusion.

"Now where would those keys be kept?"

Linda looks around the place, taking note of the two buildings and the multitude of hangers. The keys should be located in one of those two main buildings, whose windows are not boarded up.

She goes up to the terminal building. At the entrance, a small vestibule, she finds the doors to be unsurprisingly locked. So breaking out a window is in order once again as she takes out her hammer. And once again discovers that she will need that rock and goes to fetch it.

She is soon entering through the busted out window next to the vestibule as shards of glass tinkle and crunch beneath her feet.

"Damn, gotta shit. Where's the washroom?"

Linda takes a moment to see that the interior is expansive like any other airport terminal, with large windows in front of her that allow for a lot of natural lighting. She looks around for the washroom and notices two hallways going down either end of the terminal. First, she goes down the one to her right, only to find none, then the other hallway and finds the women's. She enters, finding the light coming in through the upper frosted windows. She hopes that there is still toilet paper and is relieved to find such upon entering a stall.

She slips off her backpack and goes in to use it. Unfortunately, it doesn't flush afterward. Upon leaving, she takes a glance at the men's washroom.

"Wonder what it looks like in there."

Inside, she finds urinals, no surprise there, then leaves and checks out the rest of the building. The first place she checks out is a room with its door still open and finds two vending machines in them: one for dispensing snacks, and the other for drinks. The snack one is empty, but she is unsure about the drink one and leaves to check out the other closed doors. She soon discovers that they are all locked.

"This will be harder than I thought."

She next sighs as she rubs her hand over her head as she looks around at the doors, then puffs her lips with exasperation.

"I'm gonna have to start breaking things in order to get inside . . . I knew I should've taken something else with that axe, hammer, and knife . . . Can't open them all though. That'll take all day. That means I'll have to find out where those keys are kept . . . No, wait . . . The information to the location of those keys. Yeah, that might be easier . . . ! That sounds like something the owner had to really know about. And on a printout that they kept locked up."

She walks from one wing down to the other, while thinking about who the owner might be. As she passes the locked offices, she stares intently at the signs that mark the occupation of the individuals who had once occupied those offices to fulfill their tasks. After much consideration, and pacing back and forth, she returns to two offices that are next to each other: one for the Manager and the other for the Administrator.

"Those two sound important, but which one was more important?"

She goes silent as she continues to think while glancing back and forth between the two signs. Finally, she comes to a conclusion.


	6. Chapter 5

Linda is outside around the back and underneath a window. She hopes this belongs to the Administrator's office. She had figured that breaking in through the back window will be easier than breaking in through the door. The window is high so she will need something to stand upon. She looks around for anything high enough and happens to glance in through the huge terminal windows that overlook the runway. She looks in through the large main lobby window and notes the furniture.

"Yeah, one of those should do."

Linda thinks of smashing out one of the windows in the terminal window, but rejects it as she does not like the idea of having to smash out more windows than necessary. So she walks all the way around back inside and begins her selection of furniture to use to climb up to the window. Something high enough for her to readily step in through the window, yet small and light enough for her to drag.

She settles on a chair and slowly drags it outside all the way around to the back. Despite it being a chair, it proves a difficult task for her to take. After setting it carefully into place, she stands upon it and is able to look fully inside. She sees the usual furnishings that one can expect to find in such an office.

Once again, the hammer comes out and she pounds on the window.

"Looks like it's the rock yet again."

She gets down and goes to get that rock. As she walks along, she begins wondering if this is all worth the effort.

"Maybe I should just go get on my bike and cut across country. Hell, I don't even know a thing about flying a plane . . . But . . . it's such a fast means of getting back home . . . And besides, the next time there might be a dozen infected coming from all directions . . . I might as well play this out. And if that plane don't work, then at least I'll know."

Linda positions the chair away from the window and gets upon it, carefully hefting the rock. She winds up and throws it. The rock sails through the window with a loud crash. She moves the chair back over to the window once again and knocks out the remaining glass shards.

Once the edges are cleared, she carefully sticks her head inside to see that she is fortunate that a chair is beneath the window. That means she can easily crawl in there without much effort. She removes her backpack and places it inside. Next, she carefully does a crab walk through the window, mindful of placing her foot on that chair as she hears the glass shards now covering it crinkling underfoot. She moves the rest of herself in as she has to crouch low. She pulls her other leg in and is successfully inside and gets down off the chair.

"Okay, let's see if I'm right." As she rubs her hands while looking around wondering where to begin.

The first thing she does is go and open that door to check its plate and discovers that she had guessed right. She goes up to the desk and notices a drawer with a keyhole. She checks it to find it locked and takes out her knife and hammer, then hammers the blade in through a crack in the drawer. She widens it enough to stick the clawed end of her hammer in through the crack and levers with all of her strength. It takes some time, but the drawer ends up splintering and coming loose enough for Linda to next stick her fingers in there and repeatedly pull down furiously.

"Come on you little devil." And she makes another huge downward jerk, "Yes." As its contents spill out onto the floor, one of them is a list. She checks it out and reads it carefully.

"So I did guess right!" As she discovers that she is reading the list of plane keys and their location. That being in the aviation building, the first building she had seen as she was approaching this place. She wonders why she didn't look in there in the first place.

She is still happy to have discovered where to find the plane keys and heads toward the aviation building through the door while carrying her trusty rock along the way. Once there, she relieves the building of one of its windows.

Inside, she looks around to see where those keys may be at and is quickly rewarded with the sight of a wall full of tiny hooks with letters and numbers written above each one. All but one is empty. She figures that it must be the key to that plane and takes it. Once back at that plane, she takes a deep breath and inserts the key and turns. The lock clicks and the door opens, causing Linda to gasp with delight. She gets inside and sits in the front seat, then stares at the dashboard before her.

There is a single flight wheel connected to the center between the front seats, but is over in front of the other seat. She takes hold and pulls it back toward herself and understands that if something were to happen to the pilot, the co-pilot can simply grab the wheel and pull it over. She next studies the dashboard. The first thing she notes is the ignition keyhole and puts the key into it, then the start button next to it. As for the rest of the dashboard, it is simple, yet there is some complexity to it as there are other things on it not found on a car's dashboard. Things such as the throttle, the compass, and the altimeter for height. She notices the radio and turns it on, only to get nothing, not even static.

"Battery must have ran down." And she turns it off, then returns her attention to that panel. She looks up to see that it must be close to noon.

"Should I go now?"

Linda turns the ignition key. Taking a deep breath, she next presses the button. A loud warbling sputter is heard from the engine, but it doesn't start. She presses the button again several more times while staring at the fuel gauge and still gets the same result. The needle had not moved from the E, suggesting that the tank is empty.

Linda shuts off the engine and gets out. She looks around at the hangers and other buildings, wondering where they would store their fuel. She checks out the rest of the hanger and finds a fuel drum. She shifts it around to find that it is very heavy and can feel liquid sloshing around inside, finding it almost to the brim.

Using her knife and hammer, she pops out one of the bungholes and is instantly rewarded with the smell of gas.

"Now to get that stuff out."

She looks around for a means to transfer that fuel and her searching yields a gas can like the ones that were on that boat, along with a funnel. Tipping the barrel just enough so that she could pour out the fuel is out of the question as it is much too heavy and clumsy. If this fuel drum and gas can are here, then the means of siphoning it out must be in here too and she searches around the place once again. This time having to put more effort into her search and ends up finding what looks like a very long pipe with a faucet attached at one end with a turn handle attached to its side.

She inserts it into the barrel and places the can on top of the drum. After lining the can up with the faucet, she starts turning the crank. She watches as the fuel comes running out and down into the can through the funnel.

After filling the can almost to the top, she removes the funnel and screws the can's lid back into place. She lifts the can to find it about as heavy as that rock, causing her to have to carry it in her arms. Once at that plane, she locates the gas tank cap and goes to work filling it up. The can is heavy at first because she has to hoist it up on one of her shoulders. It soon gets lighter though as more of its content goes into the tank.

She goes back to the fuel barrel and repeats the whole thing over. Each time she stops filling the tank, she checks down into it with her flashlight to see if she can see the gas up in the neck.

"This is going to be a lot of work."

Coming up on what must be her seventh trip, the last bit of fuel is finally drained from the barrel. The gas can is now roughly half full. Hoping that this will be enough, she returns to the plane and fills it up. Next, she shines her light down the neck and finally sees a reflection from near the neck and caps the tank. Now comes the arduous task of pumping up those tires with her bike pump. It is slow going, but those tires are finally plump and hard.

Linda gets inside the plane and sits there for a moment. She checks the sky and sees that it is definitely noon.

"Should I go now or wait until tomorrow morning at sunrise? The weather might not cooperate though . . . But I want to cover as much distance as I can within a day and on as much of that tank as I can before having to land . . . And the landing will be even more difficult . . . Yeah, I think I"ll go tomorrow. Just hope the weather cooperates. But first . . . "

And pushes the start-up button, and the engine sputters for a moment before dying. She pushes it again and it's same results once again. She does this a few more times until it finally sputters to life as the propellor spins, buzzing loudly.

"Well I'll be damn! It still works after all this time!"

Linda lets it run for almost half a minute, then shuts it off and gets out. She next wonders what to do and stares off toward the way she came in.

"I'll see what's around over there." And gets on her bike and starts peddling.

At the turnoff, Linda notices something through the trees that separates the double highway and rides over there, courtesy of a turnoff toward the airport's turnoff.

She rides over and finds a rest stop, complete with gas dispensers. Checking out one of the pumps, she finds them empty. Linda next turns her attention to the store. There are several large window panes lining two of the walls with the doorway nestled amongst them. Its double doors now lies on the asphalt near the doorway with their windows smashed out. The rest of the windows are also smashed out to the point that hardly any glass shards remain in them.

Linda enters the interior as glass scrunches underneath her feet. She ends up disturbing robins that flutter about that have built their nests up in the walls. She is met with the sight of empty shelves and empty soggy boxes strewn about the place. Moisture saturates the place as mold grows upon the walls and the discolored ceiling tiles sag, with some of them having since fallen.

She searches throughout the place and finds a janitorial closet with brooms and mops, along with a bottle of bleach. Both restroom doors are locked. A search of the office turns up nothing other than scattered papers and other odds and ends. Nothing edible is found, not even chewing gum.

With a sigh, Linda plunks herself down into the office's plush leather chair and wheels it up to the desk. There she stretches out across it and rests her face across her arms against her eyes. She wonders if this rest stop now typifies all other rest stops out there. Given that food and other vital stuff was sold here, it means that these places were amongst the first to be targeted. Along with grocery stores, then hospitals. And possibly gun shops.

After lying there for awhile, she gets back up to leave. Bird calls sound from outside. Upon emerging, she notices that there is a person walking along right past the store entrance. Moreover, they are the one making those bird like calls. Almost like a burst of soft creaky whiny squeaks. No, not squeaks, but clicks. Linda is eager to get that person's attention.

"Hey, you!"

The person whirls to face her and makes a throaty hiss. Linda is struck speechless at the sight of the person. Her shock rapidly turns to horror as the person quickly shuffles up to the doorway.

Linda quickly dives behind the clerk counter and crouches low. She hears the intruder making those clicking sounds and next hears glass crunching beneath its feet. She peeks over the side to watch, but it is now obscured by the shelf. At least she can hear it though.

The person emerges from the end of the aisle at just a few feet from Linda, who now has a close-up view of it. She breathes as silently as possible, a hard thing to do when one is shivering uncontrollably and heart is pounding hard.

It is a woman, judging by her body shape, and is wearing ragged filthy tattered clothes that consists of jeans and a yellowish t-shirt. Her skin is covered with mold. The head is what truly holds Linda's attention for it reminds her of a popped popcorn kernel. She finally understands that it has no eyes and is therefore blind. Its mouth is open with teeth bared and threads of drool running down. Linda can see a gap between its upper front teeth and learns that it is actually a split in its skull.

Linda's mind seems to stretch once again, giving a dreamy quality to her surroundings. Due to its horrific appearance and stench, the result of them behaving like infants with their bodily functions, Linda feels nauseous and fights against retching.

The clicker reaches the counter and bends over it, placing its hands against the top as it tilts and turns its head. It is now so close that it can simply reach down and grab Linda. At one point, it even seems to stare directly at her with that fist-sized black void within those nauseating growths like a cyclops eye. Linda's mind goes blank. Any second now, it will grab her.

The clicker suddenly straightens and stalks away down the counter, causing Linda to feel a sense of reprieve. She dares not move though, knowing that it may hear her and come back for her. Instead, she continues huddling there as she watches the clicker shuffle along down the counter. Then to her horror, she watches as it turns the end to continue inward.

Dear God, not down this way! Linda thought as her heart skips another beat.

Instead, it continues onward and into the office. Linda wonders if she should take this opportunity to get up and sneak out. She dismisses it as it might hear her and come charging out. Now she thinks about trying to kill it.

Kill. Can she really do that? Take another human life?! But that thing is no longer human. Or more accurately, no longer looks human nor behaves like a normal one. That infected may be blind, but it seems no less dangerous than those other infected that she had encountered.

Be that as it may, Linda understands that outsmarting that infected is not enough. If she is to get out of this safely, she will need to kill it.

Linda takes this opportunity to slowly get up and attempt to take out her hatchet. She can hear the clicker moving around in that office. Ever so slowly, she takes off her backpack while staring intently at where the clicker had gone. The rustling of the fabric seems loud to her ears. Every time she hears the clicker move, she freezes, thinking it had heard her. Ever so slowly, she continues taking off her backpack and finally has it off. Slowly, she settles it down and begins working with the buckle then the flap. The buckle taps against the floor, immediately invoking a response as she hears the clicker make a rasping squeak. Linda waits for it to start coming back out, but it doesn't. It probably thinks that was a naturally occurring noise it had heard.

Carefully, Linda fishes around for her hatchet and slowly takes it out. She unwraps it all while staring ahead, expecting that infected to come out. Once unwrapped, she puts the cloth back in and carefully does up her backpack, then slips it back on. As quiet as she is putting it back on, the rustling of the cloth seems to boom in her ears now.

And it is loud enough to attract the attention of the clicker as it makes a prolonged squeaky rasp. Linda picks up her hatchet as the clicker comes stalking out of that office and stops right in front of the open entrance to the counter. All it needs to do is turn to face her and it will be able to come in behind the counter and all the way up to her.

Linda remains in a crouch as she holds her hatchet close. Though she is fearful, there is determination in her now. She knows what to do if that clicker should come charging toward her.

As if hearing her thoughts, the clicker turns toward her and starts shambling; each step bringing it closer to Linda by the second, until it is only several steps away.

Linda lunges at an upward diagonal with a scream and shoves it back with all of her might, causing the clicker to go flying backward. She quickly jumps over the counter the moment before it hits the floor and is safely on the other side as it screams furiously while thrashing around behind the counter in the attempt to get back up. It manages to sit back up as it struggles to get a hold on the counter top.

Linda was expecting this as she chops its fingers off with a scream, smashing the glass of the lottery ticket casing underneath. The clicker screams in agony as its jagged nailed fingers are left behind and trails blood across the counter top as it falls back down again.

The clicker gets back up again, and again tries to grab hold of the counter top with its ruined hand, smearing it with its blood and causing the casing to tip precariously. Linda is quick to capitalize upon this and grabs the underside of the casing and flips it over, causing the clicker to fall backward yet again. For a few seconds longer, it struggles to get the casing off and get back up while screaming with rage. Upon finally doing so, the enraged clicker rises once again, this time clasping the counter top with its other hand.

Which Linda promptly mutilates as well, causing it to fall backward yet again as it trails more blood from its severed jagged nailed fingers. Linda now decides to deliver the coup de grace and tries to think of the best way to deliver it. She wonders if she should jump behind that counter and chop its head to mush, only to conclude that it is too confined a space and that it may even end up mauling her as she will be bring herself too close to it.

Next she thinks that maybe she should let it rise once again and she can move in and deliver the killing blow. Again, she dismisses that as it will be swinging its arms around. Worse, it will be splattering blood around too. And she has a bad feeling about its blood.

Linda glances back and notes those empty shelves. She hurries over to one and attempts to move it and finds that they are fairly moveable, especially now that they are empty, along with the fact that they are approximately five feet tall.

She runs to the end of the aisle that is directly in line with the struggling clicker, which starts rising once again. Just as she had suspected, it flings its arms around spattering blood everywhere up to almost halfway down the aisle toward her.

"Right here, you fucking freak!" Then bangs her hatchet on a shelf and runs to hide behind one of those shelves at its center part. She places her hatchet on the other shelf behind her then crouches as she tenses, knowing that she will have to put all her strength into this maneuver at a moment's notice.

Sure enough, she hears the screaming clicker stumble across the counter and fall to the floor. She hears it getting back up as it repeatedly bangs its hands against the shelves. With a scream of her own, Linda shoves the shelf forward with all of her might as her face reddens and twists with the effort. She can feel through the metal it getting sandwiched between her shelf and the other alongside it. She quickly repositions her hands to push the shelf over, causing it to fall over and make the clicker fall with it, along with the other shelf, effectively trapping it.

Linda whirls around and grabs her hatchet from the other shelf. She jumps upon the fallen shelf, effectively pinning the clicker even better. Its arms are trapped, but it keeps up its chilling screams as it struggles violently to get loose.

She raises her hatchet and is quick to notice that the way it's pinned, its head is leaning downward somewhat, exposing its nape. She starts chopping into its nape as if it were a sapling, feeling her blade chipping into its vertebrae.

And chops. And chops. And chops . . .

It is when the blade finally goes through the last bit of vertebrae that she finally stops. The clicker has since stopped struggling and now makes gurgling squeaky clicks. Relief floods through her as she gasps loudly and steps back off the shelf. Sweat trickles down her face and drips off her chin and nose as she drops her hatchet, then sits on the floor.

Linda leans forward as she presses her face into her hands. Her satisfaction turns to guilt.

"What have I done?"

Now that she truly understands what she was up against, she also understands that this will mean having to kill what had once been normal human beings. That is biologically a human she had killed. A woman like herself. That woman used to be somebody's daughter or sister. Maybe even somebody's girlfriend or wife.

Or even, mother.

She continues sitting like that for some time, then rubs her face with one long downward stroke as she sighs and sniffles. Her eyes now have a weary look. With another sigh, Linda gets back up and looks over at the now dead clicker. She picks up her hatchet and makes a wry face over the bloody blade. Again she has a bad feeling about its blood. This compels her to check herself over and is relieved not to find any blood on herself.

She heads into the janitor closet to get that bottle of bleach. Next, she finds a pan and fills it up with some bleach, then carefully cleans the blade off; being careful not to get any on her skin as she uses a rag she had found in the closet.

Afterwards, she dries the hatchet off and packs it away. Before leaving, she decides to test a theory. She goes up to another shelf and pushes on it, but it barely budges, even when she attempts to lift it as well. She stares at that shelf she had used to pin the clicker.

"Oh, I get it now. Adrenaline rush."

She walks around to the other side of that other shelf and kneels down to get a closer look at the dead clicker.

"They shit themselves like babies." As she crinkles her nose against its stench.

Trying to ignore the stench, she stares closely at that huge popcorn-like growth that came out of its head, effectively splitting its skull wide open. A piece of that growth had gotten chipped off after having smashed its head into the other shelf. She once again begins to get that feeling that her skin is trying to crawl off her and starts scratching and rubbing herself.

"And it really does grow out from the brain! What was that fungus called again . . . ? Cordy something . . . ? Anyway, where the fuck did this sort of thing come from?! How could it have spread around and caused all this?!"

She sighs with frustration and gets back up.

"This carcass won't give me any answers . . . I better return to the airport in case any more of them show up."


	7. Chapter 6

On her way back to the airport, Linda notices something in a ditch and stops to pick it up. It is an empty drink bottle, the kind that sports drinks are sold in. What a stroke of luck, she had been wanting to find something to hold water in, especially something with a no spill lid like this one. And she is starting to feel a little thirsty too. The stream flowing through the ditch is deep and looks clean enough to drink.

She removes the lid and dunks it into the water. Once full, she takes a drink to find that it seems fresh. She drinks the whole bottle down and fills it up once again, then caps it and returns to the airport terminal. All without incident.

She takes a moment to stare at the front window she had smashed out.

"I shouldn't have done that, but what other choice was there? Maybe I can barricade that with enough furniture."

She heads around to the back and removes the chair, fearing that if any of those infected do come around, they might try to climb in.

Once back inside, she sets to work moving the furniture over to the missing window. Afterwards, she uses the desk from that office. That part turns out to be difficult as it is a heavy desk for her to move and finds herself wishing for another one of those adrenalin rushes. But after much tugging, sweating, and swearing, she manages to get that desk up against the other furniture.

She sits on the sofa propped up against her barricade and has a meal of what she now sees as her rations. She knows that she will need to find more supplies. Of course, there are always bugs to be eaten when necessary.

With little else to do, the day passes slowly as Linda simply meanders about the place. She looks out through the windows every now and again to see if any more of those infected are wandering by.

The day drags onward.

The time finally comes as the sun sets and Linda decides to turn in. She lies down across the sofa that she had dragged up against the doorway. She continues to lie there as the twilight slowly fades, causing the interior to grow increasingly dark. Somehow this seems different than when she bedded down for the night back on that island. She figures that it must be a new setting. Then again, there was that house she had fallen asleep in.

Whatever the case, the night is fully on by the time she falls asleep.

Linda enters her home in the suburbs of Pittsburgh to finally see her family and hurries into the living room.

"Everyone, I'm alive!"

Only to stop and gape with horror as they are now all clickers. They screech while lunging at her and tear into her.

Linda instantly awakens as a chill runs down her spine. She cannot move.

What was that?! Is it one of them?! How did they get in here?! She fears that if she moves, it will discover her and attack her! If she can just jump up out of the way, she will be safe. But when should she make her move?!

Time seems to have stopped. All she can move are her eyes and she dare not open them for fear that she will see one of those popcorn-headed freaks looming over her. Then perhaps a finger? Just to prim her muscles. Ever so carefully, she moves first her pinky. So far, so good, and she moves some more fingers. Nothing yet. Now she flexes her hand and since nothing has happened yet, she finally moves her hand, then her arm.

The fear, along with the paralysis, vanishes instantly.

Linda opens her eyes as she rolls over to see that she is still alone and it is still night. She wonders what that was all about, then rolls back over to get comfortable once again and tries to fall asleep. She thinks of her family. Did they truly survive this catastrophe? Or did they end up becoming like . . . them? What if the next infected turns out to be from her family? The thought sends a chill through her.

If she can just make it to Pittsburgh, then all her questions may get answered.

The next time Linda is aware once again, she opens her eyes to see the gloom of the dawn lighting up the interior. She gets up and uses the washroom, having to use her light to brighten the interior. Next, she decides to take those vitamins and the protein powder as her breakfast. It will also tie her over for the rest of the day as she will be too busy flying that plane to eat properly. The vitamins are easy to swallow, but the protein powder proves more difficult as she has to mix in some water from her water bottle and shake the powder container. She drinks it and winces at the disgusting taste, either because she had not prepared it properly or it had been sitting too long back in that house.

Afterwards, she starts moving furniture to get out. Once outside, she takes a deep breath of fresh air and seems more revitalized.

"Looks like a good day for flying." As she notes the clear sky.

Linda looks at the hangar where the plane is, ready and waiting to go, and starts walking toward it. Only to stop as she suddenly thinks about what had almost happened to her yesterday. It should have made her more aware of danger. If any of them happened to have been around, she could have been mauled to death. Her time on that island with no land dangers never helped to heighten her sense of caution.

"I better start getting more aware of my surroundings from now on."

Once at the hangar, she takes a moment to size the plane up. There is more than enough space to start it up and get it moving on its own without having to move it outside. She looks at the tarmac to get a visual of her flight route and follows another tarmac running north.

"I should've checked for cracks in the runway. But that thing yesterday had me all paranoid."

Linda opens the back door. She removes her water bottle and puts the backpack on the seat. As an afterthought, she pulls a seatbelt over it and belts it into place.

She gets on her bike and heads back over to the ditch by the road and fills the bottle up with more water. Although she won't be able to eat properly, she will at least be able to drink. Upon returning to the plane, she gets off and pauses as she looks her bike over.

"I wonder if I should take this . . . ? Yeah, I think I will."

She goes to work stuffing the bike into the back of the cabin. Even though the interior is wider than the bike's length, especially with the wheel turned side on, it is still a difficult task as she needs to keep the door open while shoving that bike inside. Those seats prove to be troublesome.

Linda manages to get that bike fully inside and is able to close the door. She gets into the front and belts herself in. For the moment she does nothing as she just focuses on psyching herself up as she clasps hold of the wheel. All this preparation has come to this moment. The fear of crashing still nags her. That is certainly a risk, especially since she will need to land once again. She remembers hearing one time about how it is easier to take off than it is to land.

She takes a deep breath and sighs while turning the key. She pushes the ignition button, causing the engine to start up and the loud buzzing of the propellor to break the silence of the morning. Clasping hold of the throttle, she pushes it forward and the plane moves forward with a jolt, causing Linda to lunge backward slightly.

"Okay . . . Gotta be careful . . . Don't open up the throttle too much, Linda."

The plane slowly moves out of the hangar. Once outside, she opens the throttle up a little more to increase its speed. She glares at that route, hoping to be able to make the maneuver as it is a hairpin turn.

At that end, she makes the turn. She feels the plane going over the ground. It is only momentarily though as she feels asphalt beneath her once again, nothing to worry about. She keeps turning until that runway is before her.

Now comes the hard part: takeoff.

She pushes the throttle and the plane starts speeding up as its buzzing continues to increase in volume and monotone. Like the rest of the roads, she can see that this runway has seen better days; although it is not as ravaged. Though at this speed, she understands that even a crack in the pavement can trip the plane up with explosive consequences.

And still, she keeps pushing that throttle in until its head touches the panel.

"Yes, yes, that's it. That it's!"

As the plane is now at its top speed from what she sees on the speedometer. Already she has crossed the crossroads with the other west-east tarmac.

"It's now or dead."

Linda slowly pulls up on the wheel and is soon rewarded with the feeling of lightness underneath her. She smiles broadly as joy rushes through her.

"Yes! Yes! That's it! That's it!"

The plane fully clears the tarmac and continues climbing ever higher. Linda's joy turns to euphoria and she laughs.

"Woohoo! I did it! I did it! I'm flying!"

The sun rises behind her as she can see its light gleaming on the fuselage. Since she will be heading in a northerly direction the sun won't be in her face, giving her a clear view of the horizon. The forest rushes beneath her.

Linda's euphoria dies down as she continues climbing ever higher, feeling the weight of the tilt upon her. The horizon is no longer visible and she can only see the clear sky now. She remembers that a plane like this can stall if she climbs too quickly or too high. Watching that altimeter, she soon figures it out: all she has to do is keep that long line on it level with that bar within the glass.

She watches as those numbers on that altimeter keeps climbing. Once it reads two thousand feet, she decides not to push her luck and levels off as she watches that line carefully align with the line in the glass. Once leveled and looking at the horizon, she feels comfortable once again. This time, she looks at that compass and turns the plane just enough to have the letters NW underneath the needle. At least she can see that this compass works.

Off she flies toward the northwest. The landing being the furthest thing from her mind at the moment.

Soaring over the landscape, Linda cannot see the ruin that the mysterious plague had inflicted. All she can see are forest-covered mountains with roads crisscrossing through them. Houses and other buildings dot the scenery every now and again. In spite of the speedometer clocking the plane's speed at over one hundred and forty miles per hour, the land down below seems to pass at a snail's pace to Linda's perspective. She starts wondering if she will reach her destination before nightfall. Or whether she will have enough fuel like she did on that boat.

Or even if she will be able to land this plane properly.

It is close to evening when she approaches a cloudy section of the sky. There are breaks in the cloud, but there are still lots of clouds and they appear too low for Linda's comfort. She glances at the fuel gauge to see that the needle is creeping ever closer to the E.

She keeps searching for an airport to land upon, but sees nothing. She starts to feel the panic welling up in her because it seems as if every time she looks at that gauge, that needle is just a little bit closer to the E. There has to be an airport she can land at.

With the needle just above the E, her desperation becomes such that her heart starts pounding furiously and tears begin flowing down her cheeks. She envisions the plane crashing into the trees and that being the end of her. She next thinks about a lake and attempt to skim the surface to break her impact. That in turn gives her a vision of cartwheeling across the surface of the lake.

"It's gonna have to be a highway then."

She glances to see that the needle is now dangerously close to the E. She turns slightly and lines herself up with a highway down below. Now comes the toughest part of flying: landing.

As she gets closer, the engine starts sputtering and conking.

"No, no, no, no! Fucking no!" As she looks to see that the needle is now over the E.

The engine finally shuts off and the propellor stops spinning. Now she is a deadweight and starts pulling back on that wheel as far as it can go. The next thing she notices is a truck driving up the highway. She is both glad to know that there are normal people still out there. And afraid, now that she is about to crash into that truck.

She keeps getting ever closer and her panic keeps going up. It looks as if the driver is oblivious to the danger quickly descending upon them.

"Come on, you bastard! Come on! Level out!"

Closer and closer she continues to get. All the while the driver is oblivious to the danger from up above. She is now minutes away from impact and is close enough now to see that it is a double cab truck with a white and blue body.

The truck suddenly stops, showing that the driver had seen the danger in time, and she clears the truck safely.

That solved one problem, but the other cannot be solved as the asphalt is only seconds away from impact. Linda quickly braces herself for impact by crossing her arms and clasping them tightly as she presses her chin against her breastbone while shutting her eyes tightly.

The moment the wheels impact violently with the road is the moment her whole world starts tumbling.

After what had seemed like hours, her world finally stops tumbling. Everything is like a dream and she finds herself on the verge of passing out. She opens her eyes and is relieved to find that up is still up and down is still down. Blackness begins to swim throughout her vision. The windshield is covered with thousands of cracks, looking as if it can be shattered with a single blow, and the side windows are busted out. She moves her legs tentatively and even moves the rest of herself around to find that nothing is broken. Her forehead aches terribly and feels somewhat wet. She reaches up to touch it and takes her hand away to see some blood on it.

Seemingly in the distance, sounds of footsteps are heard and a presence looms alongside her. Linda idly concludes that one of those infected had heard the crash and came running. She turns to look up into the concerned face of a young girl instead.

"It's a woman and she's still alive! And I don't think she's infected!" The girl next called out to someone as she turns to acknowledge them. She too sounded distant.

A normal person?! No, two, because she had called out to someone! That someone arrives and Linda is next looking up at a bearded man standing next to her.

The blackness continues to cloud Linda's vision. She hears that girl talk to her again, this time reassuringly and even touches her. But she sounds so distant. Everything is on the verge of disappearing.

The next thing Linda is aware of is strong calloused hands touching her forehead. More words are spoken. Those firm hands feel her over, clasping her head, arms, ribs, and legs. He must obviously be feeling for broken bones. Again more words and this time he starts undoing her seatbelt.

"Y-You're both normal," Linda rasped.

And that was the last thing she remembered before waking up to find herself lying on a soft but firm surface, along with the feel of cool vinyl pressing against the right side of her face.

"So what're we gonna do with her?" She heard what must be the girl from down near her feet.

"I don't know," the man answered in a southern dialect from right behind her, but up a little high.

"Well we can't just leave her," the girl said empathetically. "There might be infected nearby who heard that crash."

Linda hears the man sigh gruffly. He clearly doesn't seem friendly and this starts to worry Linda. Though she doesn't believe him dangerous as he has a girl with him. She carefully opens her right eye while keeping her left one closed to see that she is facing what must be the backseat of their truck. No sense in letting them know that she's awake, now that she knows she was unconscious. Best to glean information through their ignorance of her regained conscious.

"And what red hair she has! It's even redder than mine!" The girl continued. Linda feels the girl brush her fingers lightly against her scalp. "Have you ever seen hair that red before?!"

"Yeah, I have," the man answered. "Back in my day, there were more people like her. They had the palest skin, so they were never able to get a tan and were easily burned by the sun. And judgin' by her skin, I'd say she was definitely out in the sun a lot. But did you hear her say how we were normal?"

"Yeah, I did."

"It means she hadn't seen a normal person in a very long time."

"So where do you think she came from?" The girl asked.

"I don't know. But I get the feelin' that I saw her somewhere before. Anyway, she's awake now, 'cause I saw her tense up slightly when you touched her. That and her breathin's more solid."

Knowing that the jig is up, Linda slowly gets up and turns over to sit up on the seat properly with her hands pressed against her knees. She guessed right over knowing that she is inside the truck and in its backseat. She sizes up her rescuers.

Both of them are White, a man and a young girl. The man has dark hair and eyes, is bearded, and appears to be either in his late forties or early fifties with touches of grey scattered throughout his hair. The girl appears to be in her early teens, with greenish eyes and long chestnut hair worn in a low ponytail.

"Hey there," the girl said.

"H-Hi," Linda answered meekly. It has been so long since she had heard another human voice that was not her own. "Um . . . Ah . . . About what-"

"You ran out of fuel," the man interrupted with assurance, "and was forced to make a crash landin'. We get it."

"Y-Yes," Linda said as she starts feeling better.

"You're lucky that all you got was that cut on your forehead," the man pointed. "It's not serious so I was able to patch it up. You'll only have a small scar there afterwards."

Linda touches a pad taped against the side of her forehead. "Th-Thank you."

"What's your name?" The girl asked.

"L-Linda."

"I'm Ellie, and he's Joel."

"P-Please to meet you," Linda said as she tries to settle her unease by shaking hands with them.

"So where're you from?," Joel asked.

Linda takes a deep breath and sighs long and loud as she brushes her hand back through her bristly hair and looking downward in the attempt to gather her thoughts. Then looks up to both of them as she glances back and forth.

"Okay, this is going to be very hard to believe, but here it goes," she finally said with articulation. "It all started on September the twenty-fourth, two thousand and thirteen . . ."


	8. Chapter 7

" . . . And I flew until the plane ran out of fuel," Linda finished.

Joel and Ellie stare at her dumbfounded, especially Ellie as she is now gaping at Linda.

"Holy fuckin' shit! You were stuck on a deserted island all alone for the past twenty years?!" Ellie exclaimed as she momentarily grabs hold of her own head before spreading her arms and hands wide.

"Now I remember you!" Joel exclaimed as he firmly points at Linda. "It was right before the outbreak when you were featured on the news gettin' washed off that ship! They didn't think you survived, includin' me!"

"Yep, that was me," Linda answered wryly. "And I obviously did survive."

"And you didn't even know about this outbreak?!" Ellie exclaimed.

"Not a clue," Linda answered solemnly.

"I bet you were shocked when you finally got off that island and got back here!" Ellie mused.

"That's the biggest understatement if ever I heard one," Linda said.

"Did you get bitten or scratched by them?" Joel suddenly asked seriously with a glare. There is something about his look that puts Linda ill at ease.

"No, I didn't," Linda quickly assured him as she shakes her head while holding her hands up momentarily.

"Did you breath in any spores?" Joel pressed. "It would look like thick greenish dust, and is usually found inside buildings."

"I never encountered anything like that," Linda stated. "Does it have to anything to do with getting infected?"

"Yes, if you get bitten or scratched by them," Ellie answered, "or even breath in the spores their bodies produce after they've died, you become infected."

"I'll remember that," Linda said. "So . . . what else can you tell me about these infected?"

"There's runners, stalkers, clickers, and sometimes bloaters," Joel said. "Runners are when they still look relatively normal, like those first two infected you mentioned. But as they continue livin', the fungus starts growin' out through their head. Then they become a stalker and finally a clicker. As a clicker, they're blind, but make this clickin' sound to get around as echolocation, like bats. Now, most clickers die before they start swellin' up with the fungus and become bloaters. And a good thing too, because as bloaters, they're harder to kill. After an infected dies, the fungus starts cannibalizing their body to produce spores."

Linda mentally digests this information as she nods.

"W-Where did this fungus come from?" She next asked. "How quickly did it spread? How far did it spread?"

"I don't know where this came from, and I doubt anyone else out there does, but it all started a couple of days after you were on the news," Joel said grimly. "At first, there were reports of a few attacks here and there. But just like everyone else, I didn't think it was anything serious at first. I thought that maybe they were either high on drugs or forgot to take their meds. Then the reports kept on increasin' rapidly and we started learnin' that it was a fungus. From all over the world, reports kept comin' in about the fungus spreadin' through other nations on other continents. It came to a point when people started fleein' the towns and cities."

"But I read about quarantine zones," Linda said.

"Those were not that helpful," Joel said.

"Why not? Surely they were trying to keep people safe?"

"In those places," Ellie is quick to add, albeit bitterly, "you're surrounded by a huge wall that's guarded twenty-four seven, and they won't allow anyone to leave. They also have lots of rules, like curfews and on the spot executions, especially if you get infected. And they won't even wait for you to turn. They simply scan you with a handheld detector and the moment it reads you as infected, they give you a lethal injection or a bullet to the head."

Linda mentally digests this revelation. It seems so odd that this country, known for its due process of the law and championing of human rights, could turn into a dictatorship. To be actually put down for getting infected right away and not yet showing signs?! That sounds like what would be done to a dog after it gets infected with rabies!

"Surely they could at least keep that person locked up and restrained until they die?" Linda said. "Isn't there a cure?"

"They won't," Joel said. "I've seen it myself back in Boston, that's where we came from. And no, there is no cure."

That is when he does a double take off to the left past Linda and Ellie.

"We got company," he stated as he quickly turns around in his seat to sit properly at the steering wheel. "It's runners. They must've heard the plane crash."

Ellie quickly crawls up to the front seat as Linda looks to see several people running toward them wearing tattered filthy clothing. She can hear them screeching and screaming, and see that their expressions are of being terrified with those buggy yellowish chameleon like eyes.

"Damn, that wreckage is gonna slow us down," Joel growled as she starts the truck up. "But I think I can get 'round it."

He drives forward slowly. The wrecked plane has its wings and tail ripped off and scattered along the highway, along with more pieces of the plane. The cabin is almost in the middle of the road, with it almost sideways across it. He drives around the wreckage, skirting the edge of the road. The infected reach them, banging and slapping on the truck as they scream and screech and end up pressing their horror-stricken faces against the side windows. Their expressions made all the more hideous as they distort them against the glass.

"Don't worry, they can't get in here!" Joel shouted in a calm manner.

He finally gets clear of the wreckage and is able to speed up, quickly increasing their distance between the runners. But one of them had managed to crawl into the back and is now pressing its face against the back window as if trying to crawl through the glass.

"Hang on," Joel said as he starts swerving all over the highway in the effort to knock that runner out of the truck. The runner gets knocked back and forth repeatedly off its feet, but it keeps managing to get back up and trying to get through that window.

"It's no good, I'm gonna have to get out and shoot it," Joel growled. "Just let me get far enough ahead first."

After several minutes of fast driving, he finally puts on the breaks, causing the runner to lose its balance and fall down after the truck comes to a complete stop.

"Linda, keep distracting it," he said as he takes out one of his guns, a revolver.

Linda turns and knocks on the glass and waves at the runner. She has a clearer view of it now and can see that it is an Asian man, probably Chinese. It keeps trying to claw its way through the window to get at her. That horrified expression is unnerving, along with its wailing and yelling. It truly does look and sound like it's in pain. She can hear Joel slowly and quietly opening the door and getting out. She keeps that runner's attention occupied.

Seconds later, a shot is fired, causing the runner to topple over onto its right side as a small bloody hole appears first on the left side of its head, then instantly on its right as some blood sprays out from it. That suddenly makes her think about how she could have acquired a gun from one of those houses, only to conclude that the owners would have taken them with them.

Joel quickly jumps up into the back, hefts the now still runner out onto the road, and hurries back into the truck. They drive away, leaving the runner lying by the side of the road as Linda continues to stare back at it for the moment.

"To think that a fungus can make humans behave that way!" Linda gasped as she turns around to sit properly. "Does it affect other animals?"

"No, it only infects people," Ellie answered.

"Now, I've heard that monkeys can carry it," Joel added. "But so far, it's only we humans who can actually get infected by it."

"Then a good thing it doesn't infect other animals," Linda said. "Or else the whole world would be in even worse shape."

"That's certainly true," Joel agreed.

There is a moment of silence.

"So why did you leave Boston?" Linda next asked.

There is a moment of silence and Linda sees them glance at each other. Something about their expressions seems to suggest something grave, but she is not about to stick her nose into that.

"I'm escorting her to the Fireflies," Joel finally answered.

"The Fireflies?" Linda asked.

"They're a militia that wants to overthrow the military," Ellie explained.

"After what you just told me, I don't blame them. But what did your parents have to say about this? I know he's not your father because you don't resemble him."

"They're not around anymore," she answered morosely.

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. So he raised you?"

"I was raised in an orphanage."

"How old are you?"

"Fourteen."

Linda winces at Ellie, finding that she is mature for her age. There is a bitterness to her, yet at the same time an innocence. She is definitely a product of this brave new world. Back in her and Joel's day, she would've been considered a troubled youth. As for Joel, he has the look of someone who has lived a hard life. Just like herself.

No, not just like herself. For those past twenty years, she was alone on that island and completely ignorant of what had befallen the outside world. Her hardness is a different type of hardness. It was one born of having been forced to live with herself, with her own thoughts, and not with others. The only food she had was what she could find in nature all around her.

"Anyway," Ellie piped up, interrupting Linda's train of thought, as she turns to grace Linda with a whimsical smile, "you must have a rabbit's foot up your cunt because we're heading to Pittsburgh!"

"Ellie," Joel growled.

"What? She's going our way too!"

Linda can see Joel leer at her through the adjustable mirror. She can now see something dangerous in his dark eyes. Something that seems to project, 'I will kill you if you try something against us'.

"Be that as it may," Joel finally said flatly. "Pittsburgh used to be a quarantine zone. But then its military got overthrown, courtesy of the Fireflies inspiring them. Heard it was pretty bloody. I don't mean to be harsh, Linda, but an awful lot has happened over the past twenty years, so there's a chance that they . . . You know."

"I do," Linda sighed, knowing where he is going with that, but not wanting to think about it. She brushes her hand through her hair.

"Does anyone else in your family have red hair?" Ellie suddenly asked.

"My father's hair was a darker shade than this and my mother was a blonde," Linda said as she briefly touches her own hair. "I think my hair is the result of the mixing of their two hair colors. You really never seen hair this red before?"

"Nope."

"I can almost count the number times on both my hands of how many real redheads I met after the outbreak," Joel said. "Though I'm pretty sure that there are still more of like you out there. There's also not very many blondes out there anymore either."

"And of course, it has to do with this fungus having killed so many people I take it," Linda said dryly.

During another moment of silence, Linda stares down at Ellie and Joel's respective backpacks. She turns around to look out the back window down into the back of the truck, but sees nothing in there.

"I had a backpack and bicycle in the back of that plane," Linda said.

"I know," Joel said. "But between questioning you, your questions, and those infected showing up, there was no time to retrieve them. Maybe you'll find another backpack in Pittsburgh."

"Ah, it wasn't mine to begin with," Linda answered. "I found it in a house, along with these clothes I'm wearing. I also found that bike in a shed on another property."

As they drive further on, Ellie decides to turn on the tape once again.

"Who is that?" Linda mused.

"Hank Williams," Joel answered.

"The father or the son?" Linda remembers hearing about that man shortly before leaving on that sailing boat.

"Don't know, but it sounds pretty old, so it must have been the father."

Joel drives along down the cracked highway where grass has grown up in the various areas. At some points, there are abandoned vehicles alongside the road.

"There were lots of abandoned cars and trucks back in Virginia Beach," Linda said.

"When people were fleein' the cities in their cars and trucks, one of two things had happened," Joel explained. "They got stuck in gridlock and just idled there until they ran out of gas and were forced to abandon them, or they got infected and ended up automatically abandoning them."

"And to think that I was so eager to get back to America," Linda said morosely.

"How did you survive for all those years alone?" Ellie mused.

"I just looked around for whatever looked edible and ate it," Linda explained. "Part of that being bugs."

"Gross!" Ellie scowled.

"That's what my reaction was at first. I even threw up on my first attempt. But now, I can eat them no problem. My original clothes were also a pair of pyjamas. I was awakened in the middle of the night and had to dress as fast as humanly possible. For the first few years, they almost wore away and I was forced to put them away for a time to preserve them, so I ended up going completely naked. My feet are now callused from walking on rocky ground, which that island was made of. No sand."

"What about being alone for all that time?" Ellie asked.

"That was the hardest part. Every conscious second of your life with no humans around for almost twenty years. I almost lost my mind and came close to killing myself. But I kept it in my heart that I was going to get home someday. I also started talking to myself, I talked to the birds, the trees. God. But I screamed at the ocean." Linda makes a weak smile and chuckle.

"Can't imagine being stuck on an island alone for all that time," Ellie said with a somewhat bewildered tone.

"And I couldn't imagine the world coming to an end in my lifetime either," Linda said.

"Neither did I back then," Joel remarked.

They drive along in silence as Hank Williams continues singing. His songs are melancholy and at times sad. The mood grows heavy and no one feels like talking. Ellie falls asleep and so does Linda.

Linda awakens to find that they are now entering Pittsburgh.

"Is this-?" Linda suddenly spoke up as she had awakened and looked around.

"Yes, it's Pittsburgh," Joel answered.

She is shocked to be coming back home to a city that has changed so much. Granted, the buildings and monuments are still around, but they are run down. She can see trees and other plants that have grown in places where they were not back then. Thousands of abandoned rusting vehicles with flattened tires line the roads and sides of them. There also looks to be evidence of destruction here and there with craters in the road and holes in the buildings.

"So what're you gonna do now that we're here, Linda?" Joel asked. "This ain't no a place for a man, let alone a women, to casually wander-oh no no no no . . . Hell, perfect."

As he stops before an overpass jammed with vehicles while another overpass next to it is clear.

"Now what?" Ellie yawned upon awakening.

Joel looks back, causing Linda to duck out of his line of sight momentarily.

"Screw it," he said and drives forward.

They drive along as Linda looks out the windows at the empty buildings, many of them damaged. She is about to ask what happened, when the truck suddenly stops, jarring her forward.

"Easy," Ellie chided.

Up ahead is a man staggering toward them with one hand pressed against his side and the other held high to hail them.

"Please! Help!" They heard him call.

"Oh my God!" Linda gasped as she leans forward between them.

"Holy shit!" Ellie exclaimed. "Are we gonna help him?!"

"Put your seatbelts on, ladies!" Joel commanded as he puts his on, causing them to follow suit with Linda buckling up directly behind Joel.

"W-W-What about the guy?!" Ellie asked.

"He ain't even hurt," Joel said grimly as he floors it.

Sure enough, Linda sees the man pull out a gun and ducks down behind Joel. She next hears shots being fired, quickly followed by a sickening thunk as a shadow briefly passes alongside her left. It comes as a shock to Linda that Joel had casually ran that man over. Next, comes the sound of windows breaking and Ellie screeching.

"Not good!" Ellie is heard shouting.

Linda quickly looks to see a bus heading toward them from down a hilly street. It slams directly into them, rattling her perception. By the time her head clears, she can only watch helplessly as their truck races toward a shuttered storefront and crashes on through it, jarring her senses once again.


	9. Chapter 8

Linda struggles to clear her head.

"I'm okay!" Ellie clamored. "I'm okay! What about you, Linda?!"

"Same here!"

"Then get out! Quick!" Joel stated as he undoes his seatbelt, causing the others to do so.

"Come here you!" A man snarled as he throws open Ellie's door and grabs her.

"Let go of me, you chickenshit! Joel! Linda!" Ellie shouted as she struggles against her captor, who pulls her out.

Linda is suddenly grabbed by her collar and tugged backward. Another hand quickly clasps her around the neck, to be quickly followed by the other, threatening to cut her air off, and she clasps them on a reflex. She idly wonders if she is going to die here as she manages to catch a glimpse of another hunter hauling Joel out.

She is savagely pulled out through the busted out window, while managing to maintain a firm grip upon her attacker's hands with both of her own so as not to have her neck stretched and possibly broken. She is pulled completely free of the truck and her feet hits the ground. One hand lets go so that the arm it is attached to curls tightly around her torso, then the other lets go so that the arm it is attached to curls tightly around her neck, making breathing a difficult task as she pulls on that arm with both hands while kicking and struggling to get free. His body odor is putrid. She watches as Joel's attacker drags him along.

"Fuckin' tourists!" Her captor snarled into her ear. "Think you can just come on our turf and take what you fuckin' want?!"

"Let us go! Please! We're just passing through!" Linda pleaded hoarsely while squirming as tears run down her cheeks. She watches as Joel's attacker tries to push his head down through a busted out fridge door.

"Him we'll kill. But you and the girl, we'll have some fun with." His tone slick and sickening.

All at once, the danger finally hits home. Linda's adrenaline surges and she struggles all the harder. She next witnesses Joel getting the upper hand as he spins around on the attacker and elbows him in the face, then grabs and shoves him onto a piece of jagged glass. The attacker falls to the floor and she now sees blood coating that piece of glass.

Her own attacker's hold suddenly goes limp, obviously from the shock of seeing his buddy go down, and Linda instantly goes into action as she too goes limp by throwing herself down and successfully slides out of his grip to hit the floor. All those years on that island has improved not only her strength but her reflexes too and she spins around as fast as her attacker can react and elbows him in the crotch, adding a screech for emphasis. She can feel his testicles pressing against her elbow.

Linda is quick to scurry away from him as he screams in agony and clasps his crotch with both hands and falls to his knees. But she is stopped by his hands grabbing hold of her ankles, which she can see upon looking back.

"You fuckin' bitch, I'll gut you alive!" His face twisted with rage and pain.

Linda struggles to get her legs out of his grip and manages to get one of them free, then thrust kicks him squarely in the nose. He lets go and clasps his nose with his eyes closed. On a reflex, she reaches behind herself thinking that there might be something she could use as a weapon. Her hand wraps around something long with a large ring on the end.

Grabbing firmly upon it, she thrusts out at him, getting him in the throat. To her shock, she ends up burying one half of a pair of scissors into his throat up to the hilt. She can feel the blade scraping across his vertebrae. The man reacts with a gag as he clasps at the weapon. Linda pulls it back out with shock and watches as the blood spurts out and the man tries to staunch the flow. His expression is of horror. But the blood continues to drain down his chest, soaking his shirt and jeans before it makes a puddle on the floor.

Linda stands up with a bewildered look and feeling a sense of shock. That infected was one thing because it didn't look human anymore.

She looks over to see Joel dropping a man after having slammed his face into a counter piled with pieces of brick.

"Motherfucker!" Ellie gasped as she is getting up while clutching her throat. "What's wrong with these guys?!"

"Catch your breath, ladies, we're leaving," Joel said quickly while pulling out Ellie's backpack and tossing it to her, then his own and puts it on.

"Watch out!" Ellie yelled as she pointed outward just as she puts hers on and the driver's door window explodes from gunfire.

Everyone scatters, with Linda diving across the counter and ducking behind it. She hurries up to the end of the store while crouching down as more shots are fired. She stares at the man that Joel had killed, seeing only his legs.

"Shit! Stay down, both of you!" Joel is heard yelling.

She watches as Joel stays low and sneaks off to one side. The shooting stops and she can hear a man telling them to spread out. She wonders just how many of them have guns. The tension is great as death seems to hang over her and now knows that she cannot afford to lose her cool. An infected is one thing, but normal people are something else. At least she still has that shiv, which she holds close to her chest with both hands around the handle.

"I thought I saw the red-haired one go that way," she heard.

Linda huddles intently out of sight at the end of the counter, behind the white horizontal fridge. She watches the reflection of the Special Cola vertical fridge near her as one of them gets behind the counter and stalks toward her direction. The others fan out toward the other end. Not good. Any of them may see her. And just where are Ellie and Joel?

That man whose reflection she sees keeps stalking ever closer to her. Her heart jumps as she can see a gun in his hand. He keeps getting closer until he is only a few steps away from the side of the fridge and simply looking down to his right to see her.

_Where are Ellie and Joel?!_ She wondered with fright. _Did they abandon me?!_

The sound of a crash, immediately following by a flickering light and screaming gets their attention, especially that man's as she can see his reflection of him looking away from her off to the side. No time to see what that was all about as she springs into action and lunges around the corner of the horizontal fridge with her shiv thrusting out with one hand.

She stabs him deep through his stomach and his reaction is instantaneous as he screams in pain and folds over while clutching at his stomach. He grips her shiv with both hands and his face is just a few inches from her own, eyes closed and face twisted with agony. She can smell the staleness of his breath. Linda hauls the shiv out from his grip and on a panic lashes out with it as she stabs upward, getting him up through the underside of his chin, going up to the hilt as she ends up touching his skin with the side of her fingers around the hilt. She feels the blade scrape past bone and continue onward.

Within the span of a second, her would-be attacker collapses upon her as he goes absolutely limp; his eyes open to reveal them rolled up; and his mouth opens for him to make an eerie groan. Linda feels numb shock go through her at the eeriness of his death. His face close to her own. She got one last smell of his stale breath as he exhaled. He does not inhale.

She immediately lets go and shoves him off her in a panic and tries to get back up. That is when she notices his gun trapped between her legs and his as he had dropped it. She picks it up and peeks over the counter and gapes at the sight of a flaming man just as he is falling down. That is when she notices another attacker holding a shotgun, but too busy gaping at his burning buddy to notice her.

Linda carefully takes aim, just as he is turning his head in her direction, and pulls the trigger. The gun fires loudly and the kickback jars her arms. The man gets knocked back as the bullet had hit him in the arm, right into one of his biceps, causing him to cry out in pain and drop his shotgun to clasp at his wound. He also shuts his eyes as his face is twisted with agony.

In a flash, Joel runs across that room and viciously smashes a brick over his head three times. She can hear the sickening crack of that man's skull as he falls and doesn't get back up. Joel glances toward her for the moment and gives a nod.

"There, over the bus!" Ellie exclaimed while pointing to the outside.

They look and sure enough, they see three men climbing over that bus that was used against them. Joel is quick to duck behind a Special Cola horizontal fridge by the other end of the counter as he fishes something out.

"So what-?" Linda began, only to stop as she watches Joel toss what looks like a can toward those three as they reach the ground.

"What the fuck?" She heard one of those men say, only to have that can explode quite loudly, causing Linda to take cover.

"Alright, I think that's the last of 'em," Joel said as he gets back up. "You all okay?"

"Yeah, I guess so," Ellie said.

"Me too," added Linda distantly as she goes over to the counter and hunches over it, pressing her hands against it.

"Good, we need to get the hell outta here," Joel said. "You know the drill, Ellie. Look around and see if there's anything we can use. Linda, you help out too . . . Linda?"

Linda is shivering and is now using her elbows to prop herself up as she buries her face into her hands. With her adrenaline rush now gone, the impact of what she had done hits home. The first man she killed is now lying there near her propped up against the counter with eyes now vacant and his skin pallid as his blood soaks his clothes. The second guy still has the shiv stuck in his brain as the hilt is protruding from underneath his chin. A pool of his blood is growing larger around him.

The weight of guilt feels crushing and Linda starts crying.

"Hey, hey, easy there Linda," Ellie said empathetically as she hurries over to her and clasps her shoulder. "What's wrong?!"

"I just killed those men!" Linda sobbed as she lowers her hands onto the counter.

"But what about that clicker you said you killed?" Ellie said.

"That didn't look human," Linda stressed as she shook her hands. "And even then, I felt bad about it after."

"Then let this be a lesson for you," Joel said as he walks up to stand alongside her. "There are not only infected you will be needin' to kill, but also other men who will kill you simply for showin' up and think no more of it than if you had been a bug. And given that you're a woman, they'll rape you first. So either get used to it or become a victim."

Linda remains hunched over at the counter as she clasps her hands before herself. She looks up at him with a weary tear-streaked face. Her eyes now showing the burden of her deed. His words made sense, but her feelings find it hard to accept. She raises her hand and rubs it through her head as she groans.

"If only," she said absently. "If only I knew what had happened . . . I . . . I would've never left that place."

"Well you didn't and now you're here, so suck it up. It's not like you can go back," Joel said curtly. "And even if you could, you'd still have to live with the memory of what you did."

He next looks around at the dead. "Now then, I get the feelin' that this ain't all of 'em. So let's get out of here before the rest show up to see why their buddies are not answerin' their calls. But first, let's see what we can find. Make it quick."

They search throughout the corner of the block, in every drawer or locker that they can find. Linda finds a box of bullets in the drawer of the counter.

"Hey, Joel, I found these," she called out to him as she rattles the box.

"They fit that gun you found, you should have them," he answered back.

Linda looks at that gun on the counter then at the bullets. She tentatively picks it up and stares between them.

"Linda, you know you'll need it," Ellie said.

Linda takes a deep breath and sighs as she looks that revolver over.

"Here, take this," Joel said as he pulls a belt off a dead hunter. "This must be the holster for it."

He tosses the belt to Linda and she puts it on. Since it's a man's belt, the waist is much wider than her own, but it will do the job.

Linda next opens the chamber and looks at the bullets. Only one is needed and she takes a bullet out of that box to see that it does fit the gun as she puts it in. She repositions the chamber and gives it a twirl before tucking it into its holster. Next, she looks around.

"I remember this place now," Linda said with strained amusement.

"You do?" Ellie said as she looks through the merchandise shelves.

"Yeah, I think it was back in the summer of twelve. I stopped here with my friends and we bought some snacks."

"Come on, we're leavin'" Joel announced.

They rush over and follow him. He takes hold of the bottom of a steel corrugated security door and lifts it up.

"Alright you two, go!" He rasped.

Ellie and Linda duck down and hurry inside. They are greeted by a shocking sight that causes Linda to gasp and put her hand up to her mouth. It is the sight of two dead men on their respective tables, with another lying on the floor. There are clothes and shoes piled about the place.

"See if you can get it propped open with something!" They heard Joel call to them.

"Um . . . There's some pretty gnarly stuff in here!" Ellie replied hesitantly.

"Ellie! Linda!" Joel shouted as his strength starts fading.

"Alright," Ellie called back as she grabs hold of the hosting chain. "Give me a hand, Linda."

Together, they pull on the chain to raise the door enough for Joel to crawl inside. "Okay, go," Ellie called.

Joel quickly crawls in then turns and grabs hold of the bottom. "Alright, I got it, I got it, I got it." And he lowers it.

"Look," Ellie said.

"Fuckin' hunters," Joel growled. "See? This could've been us."

"Man, that's a lot of people who didn't make it," Ellie said as she gingerly picks up a shirt. "Hey Linda . . . you still feel bad about killin' those men?"

Linda stares at Ellie for a moment, then back at the scene around her and finally shakes her head, albeit slowly.

"I knew I should've turned the damn truck around," Joel growled as he is checking the lockers and the shelves for things.

"We lived," Ellie said.

"Barely," Joel countered. "Come on, let's get outta here." And opens a door leading into a stairwell.

"Hold on a moment," Linda said after noticing something up in the rightmost corner of the room as seen with back to the door. "Hey Joel, could I see your flashlight for a moment?"

He hands it to her and she walks over there.

"How'd you know?" Ellie said to Joel.

"About what?"

"About the ambush?"

"I've been on both sides."

"So ah . . . killed a lot of innocent people?"

Joel only growls a reply.

"I'll take that as a yes."

"Take it however you want."

Linda silently contemplates that conversation. She starts to wonder if she is traveling with someone who is no better than those men they had killed. Since Ellie is traveling with him, there is a possibility that he might not. Or at least she hopes not.

"Hey, Linda, you gonna be ready any time soon?" Joel asked impatiently.

"Found something," Linda announced as she picks up a backpack. She looks it over and searches through it, then sniffs it. A little on the musty side, but still puts it on.

"Let's get goin'," Joel said.

They head up the stairs and enter a hallway with a door at one end with a section of the roof gone up ahead. There is a large room alongside it that runs the full length of the hallway. Inside, are mattresses and bedding about the place.

"I guess this is where the assholes sleep," Ellie remarked. "Or slept."

After finding whatever they could, they leave the room through another doorway at the end. Joel enters another room and finds a workbench with stuff on the shelves. There is a lamp attached to a car battery. Ellie enters the room while Linda waits in the doorway.

"Let's see what we got," Joel said as he takes off his backpack and starts taking out various odds and ends, including weapons. He starts fiddling with them.

"What're you doing?" Linda asked.

"Making adjustments on my guns to make them shoot better, load faster, and aim better," Joel answered. "Those parts we found will help out. Now quiet, I need to concentrate."

They are quiet for a time.

"This should help us out," he finally announced as he puts his stuff away. "Now let's go."

They emerge outside through the side door. The sun beams down upon them out of the clear sky. Alongside them are metal steps going upward. Linda gasps as she puts her hand over her mouth at the sight of a pile of charred smoldering corpses next to a wall.

"Whoa, I don't think these guys were infected," Ellie gasped.

"Then they must have been their victims," Linda said grimly. Already her guilt is melting away.

"Well it don't matter," Joel said as he walks toward those steps. "Let's just keep movin'."

Once they are at the top, he points to a brassy looking bridge off in the distance that Linda is quick to recognize.

"Alright, there's the bridge," he said as he points to it. "That's our way outta here."

"That's the Fort Pitt Bridge," Linda said.

"Thank y-Hey Ellie, slow down. Wait for us." As the girl was quick to rush past them and climb over the railings and down to the ground below.

"What? I'm right here," she said playfully.

"How about you letting me go first," Joel chided as he climbs over the side. "And keep your voice down."

"Okay," Ellie said in a mocking whisper.

Linda snickers as she follows Joel over. She now understands that Ellie has a sense of humor, while Joel does not seem to have much of one.

* * *

**Note:**

**I've never played the game, I instead studied the walkthroughs. So original character aside, the actions to come will be potentially based off of how I may choose to play it.**


	10. Chapter 9

The trio are now standing on a double lane street with abandoned rusting vehicles around them. Ellie starts whistling.

"I'm whistling," Ellie noted gleefully.

"Oh good," Joel said dryly. "Something else you can annoy me with."

"I think I remember this part of the city too," Linda noted.

They stop before a car with its driver door open and the skeletal corpse of its driver lying outside with one leg still inside the car and a suitcase near it.

"Your fellow hunters do this?" Ellie points out.

"Cute," Joel remarked. "And no. My money's on the military."

"Why would they mow down all these people?" Ellie asked.

"Can't let everyone in," Joel replied.

"So they just killed them," Linda sighed bitterly.

"And dead people don't get infected," Joel shrugged. "You sacrifice the few to save the many."

"It's kind of shitty," Ellie sneered.

"Yeah," Joel agreed.

"It seems so quiet now," Linda mused as she looks around.

"Yeah, it does," Joel said. "But back when the outbreak started, there was panic everywhere as people were fleein' from cities or into them to get into a quarantine zone."

That is when Joel begins crafting something.

"What's that you're making?" Linda asked.

"It's another one of those bombs that I used back there."

Upon finishing, he briefly shows it to Linda. It is a can with scissors and other bits of metal sticking out of it. He tucks it away and they are off.

Up ahead, they hear gunfire.

"What was that?" Ellie said.

"I don't know," Joel hissed. "Ellie, Linda, get down."

They duck down behind three newspaper dispensers, which also has a car parked by them. One of them showing a paper that reads, Pandemic, in large bold capital letters. They hear voices up ahead. Judging by their tone, they are quite casual, meaning that they were not spotted.

"More of them," Linda hissed.

"I knew those guys had buddies," Joel hissed back. "Now stay quiet."

They silently crouch there, listening to the hunters. At first, they are too distant to be heard, but eventually their voices start getting louder. Soon, they are directly on the other side of the newspaper dispensers. That is when Linda notices Joel take out his newly crafted bomb.

" . . . Screw this. I ain't waiting any longer. Let's go see what those assholes are up to . . . "

" . . . They pull this crap every time. I swear to God, if they've been holding out on us again . . . "

" . . . Yeah, and you'll do what . . . ?"

Joel lights the short fuse.

" . . . You'll see . . . "

" . . . Yeah, I-what the fuck . . . ?!" After Joel had thrown the bomb into their midst.

There is a loud explosion, along with the sound of bodies hitting the vehicles. They get up and look. Linda feels somewhat nauseous at the sight of blood spattered everywhere, torn bloodied bodies with stumps revealing bone and muscle, their limbs lying elsewhere, and three pools of blood rapidly growing around those now dead hunters.

The trio go up to a bus blocking an entrance into a quarantine zone from where the hunters had been shooting from, and climb atop of it.

"That bridge looks pretty far," Ellie said as she points to it in the distance at it.

"We'll get there," Joel said.

They drop down onto the other side and walk along. It is a military checkpoint that has been abandoned for a long time as grass and trees have grown throughout the area.

"Whoa. It's strange seeing a checkpoint with no soldiers," Ellie gasped.

"I think it's strange seeing a checkpoint here, period," Linda remarked.

"This is what most zones look like," Joel said. "This place has been abandoned for a while now."

"Excuse me, most zones?" Linda asked.

"There used to be dozens of quarantine zones back then, but most of them failed," Joel replied. "It was because they either couldn't keep the infection out, or they couldn't keep the people fed."

"Then that last part was obvious here," Linda said grimly as she walks up to a wall while pointing at words spray painted on it.

STOP FEEDING US LIES. GIVE US OUR RATIONS.

"Give us our rations," Ellie read the last part. "Why wouldn't they give them their food?"

"Sometimes they ran out," Joel explained. "Most times they just held onto it."

"That never happened in Boston," Ellie said.

"Trust me, it happened all the time," Joel said.

"I understand them running out of rations," Linda said. "But holding onto them and letting people go hungry . . . ? Why would they do such a thing?"

"Power," Joel answered casually. "When people are hungry, they're easier to control."

"Well that obviously didn't work here," Linda said.

"That's because it only works for as long as there's nobody brave enough to oppose the military. There will always be people with nothin' to lose and possess a hope for a life that doesn't include the military. The Fireflies played up to those."

"So how many of these quarantine zones are left?" Linda asked.

"Two come to mind: Boston and Hartford, Connecticut. But Hartford is fallin' apart and Boston doesn't seem that far behind. I heard there's a few others, but they're way out west somewhere . . . Now, give me a moment."

Joel crafts two more bombs. Linda winces at them, but understands that they may be needed.

They continue onward. Linda takes note of other phrases spray painted on walls. Corrupt Bastards. You'll Die Before We Starve. It sends a chill down her spine of how far America has fallen.

They push their way through a turn style door.

"I hear hunters," Ellie whispered.

"Yeah, me too," Joel said. "Just keep it down while we're going through the area, okay?"

They can hear a conversation as they are approaching the area up ahead. They are careful to keep out of sight, and can hear the conversation loud and clear. Joel takes out his bomb.

" . . . We were about to give up when she started shooting at us. Stupid. She coulda got away. I had two other guys keep her busy. I took out my rifle, lined her little head up in my crosshairs, and-what the fuck?"

The bomb explodes after having been thrown into their midst, knocking them back while shredding them with shrapnel.

"Come on, come on!" Joel yelled as he runs over to the right and next to an entrance with a sign above reading, Line Here Gate D2. Together, they press against the concrete wall.

Seconds later, two men come charging out from the alley alongside them. Those men didn't notice them and continue their running into the area where the explosion came from. Joel takes out the other bomb and throws that one way ahead to where those hunters had ran to investigate. Another explosion is heard.

"Come on, come on!" Joel hissed as he tugs on Ellie's shirt, prompting her to run with Linda following them.

"So much for keeping it down," Linda hissed sarcastically.

They run down the alleyway the men came from and run inside the door. They start looking around for the exit and Joel points out stairs going up and make a run for it. Once at the top, they run toward a hallway that has exit above it and sure enough see an open doorway before them.

"There they are!" A hunter yelled way from the back.

A shot is fired, missing them. The trio run out the doorway to find themselves in a back parking lot as they go down the emergency stairwell.

"Ah, fuck!" Joel cursed.

"Wh-What are we gonna do?!" Linda demanded fretfully.

"We're just gonna have to try and take them down," Joel replied. "Fortunately, I also have some molotovs."

Once at the bottom, they hurry around the end of the building directly next to the stairwell. Joel takes out a molotov and lights it. The hunters come yelling and cursing as they quickly descend those stairs as their footfalls ring upon the metal stairs.

Joel hurries over to the side with molotov in hand. Given where they are, he also has excellent cover while being able to hold that molotov in his right hand for a proper attack. Linda and Ellie are just behind him and are pressed up against the wall.

Joel is quick to dart around the corner and hurl that molotov. There is the sound of a whoosh, to be immediately followed by screaming as it sounds like a few men are in flames. Joel rushes out with gun drawn and starts taking aim and firing. Linda decides to help as she also darts from around the corner with gun drawn, but further away.

She is momentarily shocked to see that she was indeed right as five men are now aflame and withering in agony on the ground. She is quick to recover and aim with both hands on her gun and arms straight out to line up in her vision those flabbergasted men, some of whom are beginning to take aim at Joel, and starts shooting. She manages to hit each of them, some lethally.

Linda spots a man just in time as he is about to throw a molotov down upon Joel, but she manages to shoot him and he ends up dropping it, adding more fire to the mix as he goes up in flames along with the others near him. One of the men had jumped aside and lost his balance, causing him to fall and hit the pavement on his back. She hears the sickening thunk of his body against the asphalt, along with the loud gasp of air being knocked out of him. He doesn't get back up.

Those couple of minutes of chaos have now become silence. The fires still burn and the bloody corpses of those hunters are strung all over the stairs, some of them are charred as they give off a sickening smell of burnt flesh.

Joel looks over to Linda and Ellie. For a moment there is silence between them.

"That was too damn close," Joel finally said.

"To the edge of the universe and back," Ellie suddenly said. "Endure and survive."

"Excuse me?" Joel said as he is scavenging one of the men.

"Savage Starlight. That comic I've been reading? It's what the hero says after a big battle."

"Endure and survive?" As he takes out ammo to see that it is for one of his guns.

"I've heard of that comic," Linda mused.

"Let's get going," Joel said.

"Hold on a moment," Linda said and runs over to the guy who had fallen to the pavement. She takes his gun, which is an identical make to her own, and opens the chamber to find that it is fully loaded. She checks her own gun to see that it is now empty. With the logic clear before her, she simply exchanges her empty gun for the loaded one and returns to the others.

"Let's see if we can find anything back inside first," Joel next said.

They pick their way over the bodies and enter that building those hunters came out of to discover that it is a library. No, not a library, but a bookstore as the name, Winston Bookstore, is titled up on one wall. There are books scattered throughout the place, along with its furniture. On the second floor is a café.

"Man," Ellie said awestruck. "Look at all these books. I wish I had more room in my backpack."

"So you're a reader, huh?" Joel said.

"Well, when I'm not running away from the hunters and the infected? Yeah. I read all the time. What about you, Linda? Did you do a lot of reading?"

"Yes, I did. But I mostly read more down-to-earth books like about space, geography, history, those kinds of things."

"I've read those too. You like joke books?"

"Don't know."

"Speaking of which," as Ellie starts rooting around in her backpack, "it's time to lighten the mood." She takes out a book. "No matter how much you push the envelope, it will always remain stationary."

Linda winces at that pun.

"I tried to catch fog once, but I mist."

"Oh please," Linda groaned with a grin.

"What can never be right?"

"Left?" Linda answered dryly as she holds up her left hand, causing Ellie to laugh.

After searching through the place, they return to where they had defeated all the hunters. Across the parking lot up against a wall are three skeletons, soldiers judging by their uniform. One is slouched over sitting up against the wall with hands bound behind his back. The other two are strung up, one by the neck and the other upside down. On the wall words are spray painted on a white background.

ANOTHER 3 SOLDIERS DEAD. WHAT'S IT GOING TO TAKE? GIVE UP.

"Man, you'd gotta be crazy to string up soldiers," Ellie said.

"You get people desperate enough, they'll do just about anything," Joel said.

"And the people that rose up," Ellie replied. "They're the ones we've been fighting here?"

"That'd be my bet," Joel said.

"I'm beginning to remember some of my history lessons," Linda said. "I won't go into details, and its kinda hazy . . . Throughout history, there used to be countries with corrupt rulers. Their people got sick of them and ended up overthrowing them. The people in turn proclaimed themselves free and set about creating a new way of life. But all too often it had a nasty habit of not going the way they intended it to."

"What does that mean?" Ellie asked.

"It means that in order to create a new way of life," Joel answered, "the people felt that they had to get rid of the old ways first and started doin' away with anything associated with it. The problem was that they always started with the people who were part of it, and if that meant killin' them, then so be it . . . The more the people killed, the more bloodthirsty they got, and were soon killin' anyone they bore a grudge against. Then before you know it, everyone is killin' for the sake of killin'. And all as they cry, freedom . . . But they have since forgotten what that meant . . . Just like here in Pittsburgh."

"That sounds pretty grim," Ellie winced. "The military back in Boston may have been harsh, but at least they weren't running around shooting people on a whim."

"There's an old saying," Joel said. "Better the devil you know than the devil you don't know."

They head down the alleyway next to those skeletons and ascend a flight of emergency stairs.

"Let's see where this leads us," Joel said as he points to a break in the railing. He goes first and drops down upon a delivery van. "Watch yourself on these drops," he cautioned.

They carefully follow him down to discover that they are in an alleyway and walk out onto another street.

"Down. Down, down, down," Joel suddenly rasped as he waves them back.

Linda can hear more talking from around a corner far up ahead. She strains to hear.

"There's more of 'em," Joel whispered.

"Hurry up with that plank," one of the hunters is heard calling. There is a brief splash, which strikes Linda as odd.

They kneel there silently for the moment.

"Alright, I don't think they saw us," Joel said as he gets back up.

"There's our bridge," Ellie pointed to the Fort Pitt Bridge. "We're a little closer I think."

They head out onto the street. Linda suddenly gets a sense that she knows this place, but with all the damage around her, it makes it hard to recognize. She does a double take up the street.

"Why the hell is a pond there?" Linda asked as she points at it.

"This place was definitely blasted out too," Joel said. "After the military established these quarantine zones, they bombed the surroundin' areas to try and wipe out the infected. The problem was that it was only a temporary solution because newer infected kept showin' up."

Linda stares at the scenery around her. She suddenly wonders why she never thought of this back when they first entered Pittsburgh, but only now finds herself remembering that the only cities being in this state were what she had seen on the news. Those cities belonging to countries like Somalia, Iraq, or even Syria. It seems unreal to have American cities being like this.

Everything seems to take on a hazy quality to her, almost as if it is all just a dream. But from what Joel had told her, the whole world is now like this.

* * *

**Note:**

**To clear up an assumption about Linda's gun, she is not carrying the El Diablo.**


	11. Chapter 10

Linda walks to the end of the street looking around with bewilderment, only to stop before a high concrete wall that has barricaded the rest of the street off. Ellie followed and stopped to stare at a poster of a supermodel stuck up on a wall. She is White and a redhead, but with hair a shade darker than Linda's, and wears a red dress.

"That girl is so skinny," Ellie noted. "I thought you had plenty of food in your time."

"We did," Joel answered. "Some just chose not to eat it."

"Why the hell not?" Ellie sneered.

"For looks," Joel answered flatly.

"That's stupid," Ellie said contemptuously.

"Joel, your answer is too simple," Linda added dryly, then goes on to explain super models to Ellie.

"But why be so thin?" Ellie asked.

"Part of the industry," Linda answered. "I don't get it. You're thin, so why does this bother you?" As she gestures at the picture of the model as impatience festers in her.

"Back then there was so much food to eat and it sounds like nobody starved. Today, being thin means you don't eat a lot because there is not a lot to eat. So if there was a lot of food back then, there shouldn't have been a reason for someone to be so thin."

Linda gave a wry expression from what sounded like, irrationality. "There were people who were naturally thin. You certainly look it." Glancing Ellie over. "Many people got fat because they ate too much and were not active-"

"Don't you get it yet, Linda?" Joel interjected as he too starts feeling a little flustered with this talk. "The end of civilization meant the end of plentiful food. People started killing over food, and didn't matter if it was spoiled or never meant to be eaten by people. Pet food was eaten . . . along with the pets. I once ate cat food, and even rats . . . I've even heard rumors of cannibalism. Hope it's not true, but it wouldn't surprise me . . . I will eat my boots if starvation was not a bigger killer than that fungus." As he emphasizes that last sentence by pronouncing each word fully.

"Oh, I-I didn't understand how bad things had truly gotten," Linda said humbly. "It was just that I found some food in one house. It wasn't much, but it was still something, and still edible too."

"You were just lucky," Joel said.

"And besides," Linda said as she kneels down and begins rooting around on the exposed ground from underneath the asphalt, "there's plenty of food right down here." As she straights with a wiggling beetle clasped between her fingers.

She then casually pops it into her mouth and chews it up as if it were a piece of meat.

"Argh, I'm gonna be sick," Ellie winced with disgust as she looks away while covering her mouth. "I thought you were only pulling our leg, but you just ate a fuckin' bug! Gross!"

"At least she's got the right idea," Joel snickered. "Of course, it never got that bad for me because I was always able to trap rats, hunt game, and find stuff . . . Now c'mon. Let's keep at it."

They go up to the spot where they wish to cross. Linda takes note of the sign on the left reading, Warren Centre. A jab of melancholy goes at her. Again, Linda stares at that pond in the middle of the street.

"So do we swim it?" Linda asked.

"I can't swim," Ellie said.

Joel wades into the water.

"What are you doing, going into the water fully clothed like that?" Linda exclaimed with a sneer as she points at him.

"Over the years, I've been forced to jump into the water at a moment's notice in order to swim away to save my life," he answered. "Now wait there. I'm gonna see where this goes."

He slogs up to his neck and starts swimming away toward the overpass. The sound of an engine approaching causes him to duck underwater, and Linda and Ellie to jump out of sight behind a wrecked car.

Linda peeks out to see a humvee drive from the left across the overpass and stop for a moment. Shots are heard from it, to be instantly followed by a woman's scream, then drives forward to the right.

Linda and Ellie emerge just as Joel is resurfacing once again.

"What was that all about?" Ellie wondered.

"Nothing good," Linda answered fretfully.

Joel takes hold of a wooden pallet floating nearby and swims toward the ladies.

"Linda, can you swim?" He asked.

"Yes," she answered firmly.

"Good . . . Ellie, get on. We're cuttin' through the hotel. Come on, Linda, you're gonna have to get wet with your clothes still on."

Ellie jumps on the pallet and Linda watches with uncertainty with arms folded as Joel pushes her up to what is a bus. Once there, she climbs up.

"Set up that plank like they did," he said.

Ellie does so. "Alright. Now you just need to find a way up."

Joel looks back at Linda.

"Well?" His tone gruff. "Come on. Or we'll leave you behind."

"Alright, alright, I'm coming," Linda admonished as she shakes her hands fretfully and starts wading into the water. Between the cold and the discomfort of having to get her clothes wet causes her to gasp with shock.

She finally goes up to her chest and starts swimming forward to meet up with Joel.

"Ah, glad you could join me," he quipped as he casually wades aloft.

"Let's just get going," Linda said quickly and irritably.

Joel looks across from where he ferried Ellie to see a transport truck container blocking the entrance into another building. This one is open at its end as is the side door that can be seen further in. "I think we need to go through there."

He enters it, followed closely by Linda. They enter a building that still has a dry floor due to it being above the water level and get out of the water to be upon it. Linda immediately smells the rot and notices that this is, or was, a coffee shop.

"Oh, this place stinks," Ellie said from atop the container after following them through.

"Yeah, the wood's all rotten," Joel said.

"Did you also go to coffee shops a lot, Joel?" Ellie asked.

"I did. All the time."

"And what would you get?"

"Just . . . Just coffee."

Linda smirks. While this was once a proper coffee shop, some coffee shops used to also sell marijuana.

"What about you, Linda?" Ellie asked.

"I've never been in here."

They walk across the top of the containers and carefully cross the plank one by one. Linda takes a moment to look at the sign above the doorway to read that it is the River Café. A tightness forms in her throat, but she keeps it to herself for the moment.

"Do you think those hunters are gone?" Ellie said.

"We're about to find out," Joel replied.

After Linda crosses the plank, she suddenly stops while gasping as her heart skips a beat from shock, and her throat tightens. Along with the Warren Centre and River Café signs, the hotel's sign above the entrance pushes her melancholy forth.

"What's wrong, Linda?" Ellie asked.

"The Hotel Grand," she answered in a cracked tone while pointing at the sign.

"Oh yeah, the sign," Ellie said.

"Who used to work in there?" Joel asked.

Linda takes a deep breath and sighs.

"My father," she finally answered in a heavy somber tone. "He used to be a manager."

"So . . . are you afraid that you'll end up finding what's left of him?" Ellie asked carefully. "Maybe he escaped the city."

"Yeah, maybe," Linda replied with a sad smile.

Joel walks up to the smashed out window and listens, then sticks his head in and jumps inside, causing a splash.

"It's clear, ladies, come on down."

Linda enters first, frowning at the several inches of water that covers most of the floor, but jumps down anyway, understanding that she is already soaking wet. Ellie follows next.

"Whoa . . . this is fancy," Ellie said impressively, despite the wrecked and rotting decorum that Linda was quick to notice instead. "Ever stay in a place like this, Joel? Before it all went to shit I mean."

"No . . . no, this is too rich for my blood."

"Oh, I bet it was nice. Hey, Linda, did your father make a lot of money working here?"

"He did. That's why we lived in an upper middle class neighborhood."

"Upper . . . middle class?"

"It means that they were fairly well-off," Joel said.

"And I did stay here one time," Linda said. "It was overnight as a high school graduation present. It wasn't the fanciest suite, but it was still a very good room."

"You were so lucky," Ellie said enviously.

"Yeah . . . I was," Linda sighed with a slight nod while still looking all around as her mind takes on that dreamy sensation once again.

She remembers when this place was once a clean, orderly, luxurious hotel. But now . . . it is a horrid mess, with a swamp for a floor and plants growing everywhere. Near the center of the room is a large scaffolding with clapboards all over it. She remembers that is was shortly before going off to university when her father mentioned that they were doing some renovation work in the lobby. The central stair casing where two sets of stairs go off in opposite directions, the left one to the elevators for the rooms and the right one to the foyer, is now crushed by the massive chandelier that used to hang over it.

Linda looks off to the side and notices Joel at a coffee bar to the left of the entrance, staring at a coffee maker intensely while walking around the bar to get behind it. She decides to walk over and join him.

"Ahhh, I really miss coffee," Joel sighed with sad fondness as he stands before a coffee brewer.

This causes Linda to chuckle as she now stands in front of the counter behind him.

"I bet my father would've said the same thing if he were here," she mused. "Me? I never cared for the stuff."

"Oh, I'll be checking in for one night and I would like your finest suite please," Ellie is next heard saying in a grand tone over across at the right while standing before what had been the check-in counter .

"What the hell are you doin'?" Joel called out whimsically while walking out from behind the counter.

Linda smiles and chuckles.

"Why yes, you can take my luggage upstairs," Ellie continued playfully.

"You are a weird kid," Joel said wryly.

"At least she tries to find humor in all this," Linda countered playfully.

"There's a time for humor and a time for seriousness. And with hunters in this place who will kill us on sight, now's not the time. So let's continue tryin' to find a way up."

"I bet we can get up there," Ellie said while pointing left of the staircase.

"No, it's too high," Joel said. "Let's see what we can find."

They look around the place.

"Hey, there's a ladder back here," Ellie called out, prompting Joel and Linda to go over. It is an aluminum ladder resting at a vertical against the scaffolds. "I bet we can get it up there."

"That side leads to the elevators and up to the rooms," Linda said as she points to the left and continues on around.

"Then that's where were headin'," Joel said as he picks the ladder up and carries it over. He sets it up at the side and climbs up to the top. "Come on up."

First Ellie goes up, followed by Linda. Joel next looks over to the other side, over at the foyer with a lounge over there that has a bar.

"I'm gonna see if I can find anything useful over there for a moment," he said. "Wait here."

They watch as he shimmies across what is left of the central stairs. Once on the other side, Joel walks up to the lounge and starts looking around. He finds stuff and puts them into his backpack. He next picks up something and reads it. This prompts him to hurry back and jump down below.

"What is it?" Linda called out.

"I think I found what looks like a combination to a safe."

"I think there's one down in that office behind the check-in counter."

Joel makes a beeline for that office. He soon returns with a smile.

"You were right," he called back.

He is soon back up with them and goes to work crafting stuff. One of them being bags of white powder.

"These are smoke bombs," he said. "And I can also make another one of those nail bombs. Oh, and let me make something for you, Linda."

He makes her a shiv pipe and hands it to her. Linda tentatively takes it and looks it over. A scissors was taken apart and each part was taped to either side of the curved head.

"That will do a lot of damage," Joel assured her.

"Ah, thank you," Linda said hesitantly and tucks it into her new backpack. She suddenly seems surprised at herself that she didn't object.

They are soon off once again, with Joel leading the way upstairs.

"Watch your step," he said in reference to a section of the stairs that had fallen out. It's rounded manner suggesting that a giant had bitten a piece out. They carefully walk that narrow part and stand before the elevators.

"What now?" Linda asked. "We obviously can't take the elevators."

"Through here," Joel gestures to the missing window alongside them, leading to a section of roof.

They crawl out through it and walk along the roof. It is at that moment that they can hear voices.

"Oh shit. Get down, get down," Joel hissed as he quickly crouches and hurries up to the wall.

They can hear the hunters talking but are not close enough. Joel edges along, careful to stay lower than the windowsills. Ellie and Linda follow, also making sure to stay that low as well. Once up against another window, they can hear them clearly now.

" . . . Check for what? I ain't seen a clicker in weeks . . . "

" . . . That's 'cause were thorough. We're gonna keep being through. Now let's wrap this up, right . . . ?"

" . . . Alright, whatever . . . "

They fall silent. Joel puts his hand up to prevent Linda and Ellie from talking to him in the first place. He slowly gets up and crawls inside. The ladies rise to watch him go in, and he again holds his hand up to them as he quietly sneaks toward the doors. Linda feels her heart pounding in anticipation, and fear. Given that they are soaking wet, they may end up making squishing noises.

Linda watches Joel lower his hand and creep through the side door. Taking this as a sign that it is okay, she enters. Being careful not to make any noise. Once inside, Ellie follows. Ever so quietly, she creeps to where Joel had gone and looks to see him now within arm's reach of the man.

In a flash, he grabs the man in a headlock with arms firmly around his neck. The man tries to reach behind at Joel, but he keeps moving his head to the side. The man ceases his struggle and goes limp. It comes to her that he had either cut the flow of blood off to his brain, or he had strangled him, or possibly both.

He turns around to see Linda, and she quickly enters, followed by Ellie. They huddle up against the wall to get out of the way. Joel stalks off to the doorway of this room and looks to see a man searching through drawers. He looks both ways down the hallway and continues onward toward that man. Linda also takes this to be her cue and hurries after him, followed by Ellie.

Once again, Joel reaches that man and gives him the same treatment as he had his buddy. Linda and Ellie stand off to one side and watch. Linda is both impressed and unnerved by Joel's ability to go into a den of enemies and take them down one-by-one with such casualness. She would not have been able to do such a thing without panicking. And given that they are soaking wet, they did not make as much noise as she had anticipated.

Joel sneaks into another room through another interconnecting doorway, with Ellie then Linda close behind. Ever since they had first entered this area, Linda cannot help but notice how degraded this place has become. She had seen pictures of the interiors of dilapidated buildings, but nothing like this. Those places were cleaned out as they were in the process of being abandoned. This place still retained its trappings. And luggage is scattered about the place, some neatly and some haphazardly, some open and some closed. Candles are set up on night stands and dressers. Doors were torn down. Linen still covers the beds. There are even articles of clothing still hanging in the closets.

Even after the world had fallen apart, people were still living here. When the time came, they were in a hurry to get out.

Joel slides against the corner while staying low. He peeks around the corner and quickly looks in the other direction, then gestures for them to follow as he goes down the corridor. On a reflex, Linda takes her gun out and cocks it. It catches Joel's attention and he darts a glare at Linda and furiously shakes his head while ardently mouthing no. They continue along as they creep in single file close to one another. Linda can hear her own breath, along with the distant muffled chatter of the hunters behind them. They don't sound like they are approaching, but she still looks back for a moment, then looks forward.

On a reflex, Linda shoots a hunter at point blank range through the underside of his chin as he is coming out of a room alongside her. Joel whirls around to give her an intense look, then glances down at the now dead hunter by her feet.

"I'm sorry, Joel, he just came out of nowhere and-"

"Can't be help! Come on!" Joel shouted as he starts running.

They quickly follow him down the hallway. Shouts are heard behind them. They hurry into a room with no adjoining doorway. Joel hides next to the door while the ladies take cover behind the double bed. The musty smell wafting off the sheets causes Linda to wince. They hear the hunters closing in.

" . . . Look! The trail of water leads to that room . . . !"

" . . . They're fucked! That room doesn't join with another room . . . !"

" . . . Hey tourists, come out if you wanna die a quick painless death . . . !"

" . . . Or stay in there and die a slow painful one . . . !"


	12. Chapter 11

Joel takes out a smoke bomb and dashes to the corner of the door. He lights the fuse and waits a moment, then hurls it out around the corner. One of the hunters shoot, but nothing comes of it.

A loud rumbling poof is next heard as what looks like thick white mist comes up to the doorway. Shouts of surprise and shock are heard. Joel is quick to take out a baseball bat, followed by another nail bomb. He lights its fuse and hurls that one out around the doorway too, then grabs his bat.

A couple of seconds later, there is a loud explosion.

"Come on!" Joel shouted as he firmly gestures while moving.

Once out in the hallway, Linda is confronted with the mess of blood and three dead hunters as pulverized sugar dusts everything. The sugar causes the blood to clump up. Much of the mist still hangs in the air and can be tasted as the trio runs through it. They jump over the mangled powdered torsos of the hunters and keep running. Up ahead at an adjoining hallway, a hunter comes running out with a shotgun just as Joel reaches the threshold. The hunter lifts his shotgun, but Joel is quicker as he smashes the end of his bat across the hunter's face, causing him to stagger. Joel follows through with a crack across the hunter's head. Linda hears the unmistakable sound of a skull cracking as the hunter falls and doesn't get back up.

Joel continues running with the ladies close behind, until he stops at the end of the hallway joined to another running horizontally and motions them to do the same.

"You two stay there and listen," he whispered back at them while pointing to the wall at the edge of the hallway. "Linda, I think you know what you'll need to do if any more show up."

Linda takes her gun out and nods with deliberation. She is hollowly surprised at herself.

Joel hurries back to that hunter he had dropped and starts searching him over. In the meantime, Linda presses her side to the wall near the corner while facing toward the end and listens intently. Ellie is standing behind her. Sure enough, they hear voices, along with footfalls, rapidly closing in on their direction from down the hallway to their left.

" . . . It came from that way . . . !"

" . . . That sounded like a bomb . . . !"

" . . . I bet it's that truck trio we heard about . . . !"

Linda's heart races once again as she cocks the hammer of her gun. She stares at the wall up ahead to see if she is casting a shadow upon it that those approaching hunters may end up seeing. The daylight coming in through a window down that other hallway is brighter, drowning out her shadow.

Three shadows suddenly appear over the floor ahead of them lumped together.

" . . . Down that hallway . . . !"

Within the span of a second, the first hunter appears around the corner and Linda shoots him, hitting him in the shoulder. Two more stumble into him and they all fall together. Linda fires shot after shot into each of them and manages to shoot one of them in the head. Two of them are still able to move, albeit slowly. She keeps pulling the trigger, but all she gets are clicks.

The surviving hunters stop moving when Joel arrives to fire a round into each of their heads. There is a moment of silence.

"Good work, Linda," Joel said respectfully.

"I hope that was the last of them," Ellie said.

There is a moment of silence as they are all listening intently.

"Yeah, it is," Joel said, and goes to work searching their bodies. "Hey, Linda. I think your gun can take these." As he tosses some bullets to her, of which she catches and is able to reload her gun with them.

"How're you feelin', Linda?" Ellie asked.

"I feel hazy," she answered. "It's as if I feel less guilty about killing those men."

"That can be a good thing when facin' these kind of men," Joel said. "Here's something else for you." As he tosses that something else at Linda, who also catches it. She examines it to see that it is a gas mask.

"Why would I need this?"

"That's to protect you from spores if we're ever some place filled with 'em," Joel answered.

"Then what about Ellie?"

"You don't have to worry about me," Ellie said.

"Oh, so you have your own gas mask?"

"Yeah, that's right."

"Let's get going," Joel said.

They continue along, having to go through rooms as the hallways and stairwells are blocked with debris. At one point, they exit onto a rooftop and climb through a window with a smiley face marked next to it. The room in question is sealed off with a dresser and stacked with crates and furniture up to its ceiling with a large hole in it. They climb up and into another room that is also blocked off, but accessible by a hole in its wall, of which they go through. Linda notices that it is a bathroom while smelling something putrid.

And is next startled by the sight of a long dead man and woman in a bathtub full of water long since befouled by blood and decay.

"Oh, creepy," Ellie gasped. "Guess they took the easy way out, huh?"

"It ain't easy," Joel said, "for many, it was better than letting a clicker or a hunter do it for them. Trust me. It ain't easy."

"It almost sounds like-" Linda began, only to be cut off by a glare from Joel.

"Come on," he said.

They leave, going out into the hallway and come upon a flight of stairs going up and take them. At the top, they come to the elevators with a lot of luggage and boxes next to them, along with a fuel drum being used as a fire place. The elevator on the right has its doors ajar.

"Hey, it looks like there's a ladder inside this elevator," Ellie said while pointing out that elevator.

"Hold up," Joel said. "Let me try to open it."

Joel takes hold of the elevator doors and pulls them apart to reveal it so, leading up to an open hatch in its ceiling. He climbs into the elevator.

"Let's see where this goes," he said.

"What makes you think that will get us out of here?" Linda winced.

"I don't, but given the damage 'round here, the other exits are blocked and we'll only end up runnin' in circles."

He starts climbing up the ladder and through the open hatch. Linda is next and finally Ellie, who turns and closes the lid loudly.

"Just in case," she said.

Linda notices boards laid out to cover the narrow gap between one of the wall ribs that is leveled with the top of the elevator, and understands that those hunters had made use of this as another passage.

"That looks like a way through," Joel said as he points at the other open doors.

He starts easing his way through the narrow space created between the wall and the steel beam frame that separates the two elevators. "It's gonna be a tight fit but come on."

Joel reaches the next elevator over, which is roughly ten feet lower, forcing him to jump down.

"You go next, Ellie," Linda said.

"Thanks." And Ellie gets up on the ribbing and eases herself along. Once she is far enough along, it is Linda's turn.

"Ellie, you find us something to climb on," Joel said as he assumes the position after Ellie had jumped down. "Okay, here we go."

Linda gets clear of the frame just as Ellie is getting hoisted up by Joel to the next floor through the open elevator door. She jumps down.

"Oh God!" Linda screamed as the elevator had finally collapsed the second before her feet could touch it.

She is next violently jarred by the impact with the water, then against the roof of the elevator. The density of the water had slowed her impact, sparing her from injury. She struggles upward and resurfaces. Given that it is so dark, she cannot see anything.

"Joel! Linda!" Ellie called from up above. Linda looks up to see Ellie looking down through the opening of the elevator door.

"I'm alright!" Joel called out near her as he turns on his light nearby. "Linda?!"

"I'm okay!"

"Are you okay, Ellie?" Joel called back up.

"No! You scared the shit outta me! I'm . . . I'm gonna climb down there, okay?"

"No!" Joel shouted back up. "Stay up there! We'll make our way up to you!"

"Don't do anything stupid!" Ellie called back.

"We'll try," Joel said. "Come on, Linda."

Joel leads the way as they slog through the dark flooded basement.

"That could be it," Joel said as heads toward a pair of closed double doors. He pushes them open and debris suddenly comes crashing down, just barely missing him and shutting the door once again. "Can't go that way."

"So now what?" Linda asked.

"I was hopin' you could tell me, given that your father was the manager of this place."

"But that doesn't mean I know every nook and cranny," Linda said curtly, feeling both amused and offended. "He never allowed me free reign of the hotel, so there were plenty of places off limits to me."

"And I take it this place was one of 'em," Joel said dryly.

"Yes."

Joel sighs as he looks around.

"Maybe that way," he answered as he points toward a room.

They head into it and find that it is a stairwell with the stairs leading down. Linda is startled by a fluorescent light fixture that suddenly falls and dangles.

"Looks like we'll be divin'," Joel said. "Are you up to this?"

"Whenever I fished, I had to go underwater a lot. That meant I needed to see where I was going. So there's your answer. But let's time this properly by taking two deep breaths, then take a deeper one and hold that as we dive. Okay?"

"Okay."

Linda inhales and exhales twice as she holds up a finger for each one. After exhaling for the second time, she takes a deeper one and together they dive. The murkiness of the water dims Joel's light somewhat, but she is able to follow him closely, using the handrail to propel herself along and follows him through a doorway.

Large air bubbles escape her mouth as she screams on a reflex at the sight of two decomposing corpses floating midway in the water. A huge mistake as her urge to inhale is suddenly strengthened. She grabs the doorframes and propels herself outward and right as Joel swims toward an open doorway, almost getting kicked in the face by him. She races past him and upward. It seems as if she is seconds away from giving in and inhaling.

Linda breaks the surface as she quickly exhales, then inhales deeply to feel intense relief.

"Oh my God! Those fuckin' corpses startled me! I ended up screaming underwater!"

"They startled me too," Joel said. "But I've dealt with enough surprises that I've learned to control my reactions."

"Ahh, please let there be no more surprises," Linda groaned. "And how is it that those corpses were floating anyway? Given that they were practically skeletons."

"There must've been enough gases built up in their bodies so that they can float like that."

"And where did all this water come from? We're not that close to the three rivers."

"Broken water pipes."

Linda is silent with embarrassment over not knowing that simple answer.

"C'mon. Over there," Joel said.

They go down a hallway and are confronted by a closed chain link gate blocked with debris.

"We need to find a way around this gate," he said.

"Hey, look at that?" Linda said as she points at the wall on her right.

Joel turns and they see that there are words spray painted on it, complete with an arrow alongside it pointing down.

"Hold your breath, you're going down," Joel read.

"Where would that be? We're standing on the floor," Linda said.

Joel returns to where they had resurfaced and dives down once again. He resurfaces several seconds later.

"There's a hallway directly underneath you."

Linda goes over to Joel and they ready themselves to dive once again. Upon doing so, Linda discovers that it is not a long corridor as it takes only a few seconds to reach the end. They turn right as they go through another doorway and go left to resurface through a busted out section of the ceiling, which turns out to be another floor and are now in another room.

"I wonder how many more dives we need to do?" Linda gasped.

"I don't know, but we have to keep movin'," Joel said.

He turns to go down another hallway, when . . .

"Stop. Spores up ahead," Joel suddenly announced as he stops and turns to Linda, holding his hand up to ward her back.

"Where?" As she strains to look ahead.

"See that mist up ahead?" As he manually fiddles with his light to direct the beam.

Linda stares up ahead.

"Yes," she finally answered upon noticing a faint mist.

"If you breathe that in, you'll become infected," Joel said as he takes his gas mask out. "So get your gas mask on."

Linda takes out her gas mask.

"You're gonna need to readjust the straps since that hunter had a bigger head than you," Joel said after putting his on. His voice sounded muffled and metallic through the filter.

Linda slips it on over her head and finds out that Joel is right.

"Let me help you with that," he continued as he turns her around and loosens straps, then tightens them slightly. "There. How's that?"

"That should do it," Linda answered, amused at the sound of her own voice through her filter. Given that she never worn a gas mask before, she has some difficulty with it and winces at some of the water having gotten in and smudging the glass. It does not hamper her vision and she takes a deep breath, finding that she can breathe properly.

"It's a good thing that hunter was carryin' his," Joel said. "What're the odds of that?"

"I don't know," Linda answered. "But where did these spores come from again?"

"Dead infected. After they die, the fungus cannibalizes their bodies . . . It's pretty gruesome."

"So that means there are dead infected in here."

"And possibly more infected," Joel concluded. "Now let's get a move on."

She follows him into that cloud of dust-like spores. The visibility is reduced as she can now clearly see the thick beam of Joel's light. Motes of fungus are revealed in that light as it drifts throughout the air, like dust, disturbed by their passing.

As they walk down the hallway, the sound of chittering is next heard up ahead, along with splashing. That is when a hundred tiny eyes, gleaming in Joel's light, appear down on the floor and come directly at them.

"Rats!" Linda shouted as her heart pounds away at the mental image of her and Joel getting swarmed.

The rats split into two groups and run into one of two rooms across from each other, much to her relief.

"Those rats were runnin' away from somethin'," Joel said.


	13. Chapter 12

They enter a room and come upon a section of ceiling that had fallen down in the manner of a ramp leading upward. There are red and yellow cords leading upward attached to a generator nearby. Joel examines the generator.

"There's still plenty of fuel in it," he said. "But let's follow the cables first and see what it powers."

They follow those cables all the way up to the next floor via that ramp and into a hallway. They go down to the end and through a door that has another hallway going left. Linda makes a wry face at the strange growths all about the place. It reminds her of foam insulation, but with long thick reddish tendrils protruding out from them.

"Wha-What is all this stuff?" Linda asked.

"This stuff used to be people," Joel answered casually. "Infected people. And then they died and the fungus broke their bodies down to produce these spores."

Linda sucks in breath hard, making a hiss, as her skin itches and twitches, causing her to rub her arms. "This has got to be the most grisliest way to go!"

"That it is. Fortunately, cremation will prevent this from happenin'."

They walk past the fungus generators. Linda is careful not to touch one of them, fearing that she will get infected if she does. They come upon a door with a swipe card lock next to it. Joel tests the door, but it is locked.

"It looks like we will need to do two things," Joel said. "Find that keycard and turn on that generator. First, we look for that keycard."

"For all that we know, it might be outside that door," Linda said.

"I don't think so. Otherwise, that generator would be out of fuel. No, it's still in here. Are you sure you don't know anything about this part? Perhaps in conversation maybe?"

"Now that you mentioned it, security was stationed here. So that card may be in here."

"Sounds logical. Let's get to it."

They continue their search and manage to find the security room. Its monitors and control panels are damaged, but on the panel is what they are looking for.

"You were right, Linda," Joel said as he picks up the security card.

"May I?" She asked as she holds her hand out. He gives it to her and she looks it over in his light and ends up looking at a picture of a man named Jack Sullivinsky. He is White, possibly in his sixties, with brown eyes and white stubble for hair and beard while he has dark eyebrows.

"I knew this man," she said as she hands it back. "He was the hotel's chief of security."

"Maybe that was him back there," Joel said as he takes it. "Now for that generator."

That is when they hear throaty elongated croaking, almost as if someone is gasping, and Joel turns to shine his light back on a man who quickly turns away to scuttle off.

"Goddammit, a stalker!" As he takes out his shotgun, causing Linda to take out her own.

The man comes running back and Linda can see that he has growths coming out of his head, though he still has those eerie eyes. Joel shoots it and it drops with a huge gut wound.

"I hate these things," Joel sighed.

More throaty elongated croaking is heard and another male stalker runs past.

"They're not as direct as a runner or clicker," Joel said quickly.

The stalker suddenly comes running into the room from around the door, only to get gunned down by Joel and Linda simultaneously.

"How many of them do you think there are?" Linda hissed.

"Probably more, get-"

Another stalker, a female, runs screaming into the room from around the corner and grabs Joel, then tries to bite into him.

"Hold it steady!" Linda shouted as she rams the barrel of her gun into its face, then shoots, causing its brains to get blown out and Joel to push it away.

"Good work!"

"Look out!" As she manages to spot another stalker come running.

Joel is quick with his shotgun and blows that one away. Linda walks up to one of the fallen stalkers to see that it still looks human in that it still has eyes, but the fungus is starting to grow out through its head. This sets off her skin crawling sensation once again.

"Let's get to that generator," Joel said.

They return to it and Joel pulls on the ripcord repeatedly until it starts up. Screeches are soon heard almost immediately afterward.

"Goddammit," Joel shouted.

Another stalker comes charging out through the double doors nearby and makes a beeline for Joel. Linda is about to shoot it, but it is soon upon Joel, who hauls off and punches it, causing it to stagger. She watches as Joel shoves it away and punch it again, breaking its jaw as she had heard the bone crack. He quickly grabs it by the head and rams his knee into its face, causing it to fly backward and smack its head against a wall. Joel takes advantage of this by kicking it in the face as hard as he can, crushing its head.

"That went well," Linda said.

As if right on cue, a bellowing gurgling growl is heard from where that stalker had come.

"What was that?" She exclaimed.

"Oh God, no. Not one of those," Joel said worriedly as he takes out a Molotov.

The doors burst open and there stands something that Linda thought was almost as disgusting as those spore cadavers she was shown. It looks like a clicker save for its monstrous size that looks to be a mix of muscularity and obesity as it stands approximately seven feet tall and is possibly five hundred pounds. Hideous growths that resemble plants cover it.

"What the hell is that?!" Linda exclaimed.

That is when the creature in question grabs at itself and tears something off. It throws it directly at Linda, who is not quick enough as she ends up getting hit by something that felt as if it were a soccer ball getting launched out of an air cannon. She goes flying off her feet as the air is knocked out of her and yellow mist explodes before her while landing painfully against the concrete floor.

Linda struggles to recover and get back up. That is when a whoosh is hear as a suddenly flash lights up the room, followed by a roar of pain. She looks to see the bloater aflame, then notices Joel taking out another Molotov, lighting that, and hurling it at the bloater once again. More flames shoot up on the bloater, feeding the fire already engulfing it. Again, he takes out another Molotov and adds even more fuel to the flames.

Joel takes out his shotgun and shoots it a few times before it finally drops. Something rushing in on one side causes her to turn and be confronted by a stalker running down that ramp. On a reflex, she shoots it until it her gun starts clicking, but the stalker had dropped.

"Let's get out of here!" Joel said as he runs to the ramp, Linda is quick to follow. Another stalker comes running, but Joel blasts that one away.

Back outside, a floodlight is on to light the way back to the door. They reach the door and the light on the swipe area is red.

"C'mon," Joel growled as he passes the card through it.

There is a beep and the light turns green, causing a clinking sound as the door unlocks. Joel pushes the door open.

"Made it," he said with relief, which Linda shares.

They step into a stairwell and let the door close behind them. There are no spores in this area and Joel removes his mask, prompting Linda to do the same.

"Ah, so much for that," he gasped.

"What was that?!" Linda exclaimed.

"Bloater."

"Bloater?"

"Yeah . . . now fortunately they're rare, 'cause most infected won't live past their clicker stage. And a good thing too, 'cause bloaters are tougher to kill. Now c'mon. We gotta find Ellie."

They head up the stairs and into an area where there is an office, a washroom, and a storage closet. Linda takes a moment to load some more bullets into her gun, something which Joel also does. He also uses a workbench to fix up his weapons. Down the hallway is another door that Joel opens and leads them into a kitchen. That is when they hear a clicker off to their left, causing them to dive low behind a counter.

Next are the sounds of gunfire.

"It's down," a man yelled. "Finish it!"

More gunfire follows and the next sound is that of the dying clicker.

" . . . I got it . . . "

" . . . Nicely done. You bit . . . ?"

" . . . Not today. You . . . ?"

" . . . Not today. Alright. Spread out and make sure we didn't miss any more of these fuckers . . . "

Linda has her gun out and waiting as Joel peeks over the side and watches for the moment. She watches him as he sneaks up to the hunter who has his back to them. Joel grabs him and puts the choke hold on him. The hunter tries to get to him, but is put down.

Joel is about to make his next move when another hunter comes through the kitchen door on the right.

"Oh, fuck, a tourist!"

The hunter scrambles backward before Linda could shoot him.

Joel curses as he rushes to the counter up front and peeks over, with Linda alongside him. Linda now recognizes the place, but due to their situation, she keeps quiet about it. They see that hunter with two more hunters.

"You got another one of those bombs?" Linda asked.

"Nope, and I'm out of Molotovs too. Now if they can get together, I might be able to use a smoke bomb on 'em. But I have only one left though."

"There they are!" One of the hunters yelled.

"Smoke 'em out!" Another commanded.

One of them takes aim, just as Joel and Linda are diving for cover, and fires. The bullet grazes the counter near where they had been.

"Keep 'em pinned!" Another one yelled.

"Hurry, back here!" Joel hissed as he runs to the back of the kitchen while crouching with Linda close behind.

Linda hides behind a metal table at the end of the chef counter and keeps her gun pointed at the doors to her right, or door since one of them is missing as is the other at the left side. She understands that there is a possibility that the hunters might not come bursting through that door. It still doesn't change the fact that the hunters outnumber them three to two. Linda surmises that the most obvious thing for those hunters to do is to have one of them keep their guns trained over the counter while the other two get into position and snake their arms around those respective single standing doors at either end and shoot.

With this in mind, she takes aim at the door in front of her as she stays low. All the while expecting an arm to come snaking around and point a gun at where he thinks she might be. It seems as if any second now, it will come.

Sure enough an arm quickly snakes around with gun in hand and shoots. In a flash, Linda adjusts her aim and fires. The bullet hits true as it penetrates the hunter's arm, causing him to drop his gun and pull his arm back while screaming in agony. Come to think of it, she hears a double scream. And was that gunfire sounding at the same time as her own?

That is when Joel runs forward while remaining low with a smoke bomb in hand. He hurls it out over that counter where it explodes. The reaction is swift as that other hunter cries out. Wanting to help out, Linda rushes forward as does Joel and rounds that kitchen door. She sees the hunter down below still nursing his arm in agony and fires once, hitting him in the head, causing him to go still. Linda looks up in time to see Joel rushing forward with a bat and bludgeons that smoke incapacitated hunter to death. This causes her to idly wonder about the other one behind the left door and looks to see that he is now dead with a bullet hole in his head. She didn't hear the gunfire, now that she thinks about it.

"Good work," he said.

They go to work searching the corpses and find spare ammunition to use in their guns. Afterwards, they get moving.

"This restaurant used to serve excellent food," Linda said fondly while looking around as she has a sad smile. "They made wonderful desserts, especially a peanut butter fudge cake."

Her expression becomes more serious. "And now it's all gone," she finished with a forlorn tone.

"A lot of stuff is gone," Joel said. "Let's stay focused. We're trying to reach Ellie, remember?"

"Look at that doorway over there," Linda said as she points it out. It is high up and the steps are missing. In front is a pool of water that had seeped in through a break in the floor.

"Yeah, and I see a ladder over there too," Joel said.

They go over to it and Linda looks down at the pool of water. A section of floorboards had been torn up and a pit formed, causing water to fill it up. Joel picks up the ladder and sets it up underneath the opening. He climbs up to the top and Linda is standing near to the left.

She gasps with shock upon seeing him fly backwards all of a sudden and land in the water.

Linda looks up to see something descending and next feels an intense pain in both sides of her head as the other side hits the floor hard . . .

Gunfire is the next thing she is aware of and she tries to get up, but the massive pain in both sides of her head seems to have drained her of strength and she starts feeling nauseous. Slowly, painfully, she rolls over to look ahead and see someone standing up and pointing something down at Joel as he sits in the water. Linda shuts her eyes and takes a deep breath, feeling a little better, then looks. Her vision has cleared somewhat and can now make out the scene clearly.

It is Ellie who is pointing a gun at Joel.

_What?! Why is she . . . ?! No, there's someone else in the water with Joel!_

Linda pushes herself upward with much effort, and the pain seems to intensify throughout her head. She draws deep steady breaths and her pain seems to diminish somewhat and her strength returns a bit. She crawls forward until she is near the edge of that pool and can now see another man lying down in the water, with a cloud of blood obscuring his face and now understands what had happened for her to be this way.

Not feeling quite recovered, Linda lies her head down on the floor once again to rest off what she now knows must be a concussion.

"Man . . . I shot the hell outta that guy, huh?" Ellie sighed with relief.

"Yeah, you sure did," Joel growled as he gets up.

Ellie sits down upon an overturned plastic crate for bottles.

"I feel sick."

"Why didn't you just hang back like I told you to?" Joel admonished as he snatches the gun away from her, then goes to work checking that corpse.

"Well, you're glad I didn't, right?"

"I'm glad I didn't get my head blown off by a goddamn kid."

"You know what? No. How about, hey Ellie, I know it wasn't easy, but it was either him or us, thanks for saving our asses. You got anything like that for me, Joel?"

"We gotta get goin'," he instead answered, then turns his attention to Linda and shakes her gently. "Hey, Linda . . . ? Linda, are you okay?"

"I . . . I think so," she rasped as she slowly gets back up and rubs both sides of her head while wincing with pain. The painful throbbing in her head is beginning to lessen. She breathes deeply and starts feeling better. Joel clasps hold of her face and looks into her eyes. He feels her head over too.

"It's just a concussion," he concluded. "It should clear up soon. Can you walk?" As he pulls her to her feet. He lets go of Linda and she wobbles as her legs feel like rubber, causing him to grab her once again.

"Come on, you can do it," he said. "You gotta do it before more of their buddies show up."

Linda threatens to topple with every step she takes. Her nausea peeks and she feels as if her stomach is going to come up out of her mouth, causing her to repeatedly retch. Finally, she vomits.

"Gross," Ellie said.

Linda continues to retch and hyperventilate. She feels better now in that she seems to have regained her strength as her legs no longer feel so rubbery. She keeps walking about until she can walk comfortably now. The pain diminishes even further.

"Let's go," Joel said.

"Lead the way," Ellie said.

They go back up that ladder to find that it leads them into a room. They walk out and come to a corridor that attaches to this corridor as it goes off to their right. That corridor doesn't lead to a way out, just to a small lounge above the restaurant. They continue on their journey until they come to a flight of stairs that is missing the rest of the way down, so that they had to jump down into a hallway.

"We need to get back out. Find that bridge," Joel said.

"Just tell us where to go," Ellie said.

"I hate this crap," Joel muttered under his breath.


	14. Chapter 13

They enter an auditorium, with a walkway up above. There are draped tables and chairs about the place, some of which are jammed into the entrance as a barricade. Linda suddenly gasps with shock and awe as she clamps her hand over her mouth and looks around at the fancy but withering decorum.

"What's wrong?" Joel asked.

"I-I don't believe it! It's all still here?!" Her joy and disbelief are intense.

"So what is all this?" Ellie asked as she also looks around.

"All this was for my prom!" Linda announced overawed. "I graduated from high school the year that plague broke out! I can't believe that everything is still here after all this time!" She feels giddy with the excitement and wonder of all the decorum. It was as if it were all frozen in time.

"What's a prom?" Ellie asked.

"A party thrown by teenagers to celebrate their graduation from high school," Joel explained. "It was considered a rite of passage as it was a once-in-a-lifetime event. You had to dress formally, with boys wearing tuxedos and girls wearing gowns. Even the adults were dressed formally."

"Oh wow! This brings back memories!" Linda exclaimed as she jogs over to a partially torn down backdrop of a sunny tropical beach with palm trees, prompting Ellie and Joel to follow.

Linda stops before in then turns around as if getting her picture taken. "I had my picture taken before this very backdrop with my date! Everyone had to have a date in order to attend and their date had to be under twenty-one. I was dressed in a green sleeveless satin gown and my date was dressed in a dark blue tuxedo. His name was Marco. He was tall, wiry, with blond curly hair and green eyes, like Ellie's."

"So what went on at this prom?" Ellie asked.

"Dancing mainly," Linda answered in a calmer tone. "Yep . . . Dancing, socializing."

She next feels a touch of melancholy, causing her to take a deep yet pained breath and sigh loudly and look all around with a more morose expression.

"Yep . . . Just hanging out with friends wearing fancy outfits," she next said in a softer tone. "And it was all to celebrate the beginning of the rest of our lives without school . . . I wonder if any of them survived?"

"Did you ever go to a prom, Joel?" Ellie asked.

"Yeah, I did," Joel said.

"I wonder if I will ever get to go to a prom?" Ellie wondered, but in a curt manner.

"Okay then, something on your mind, Ellie?" Joel asked.

"I wasn't trying to disobey you guys back there. You two were taking a really long time and I thought, maybe they've gotten into trouble."

"It don't matter what you thought. I need you to listen to me."

"I do. It's just that . . . Whatever, Joel."

"Joel, if she hadn't disobeyed, both of us would be dead by now," Linda added with exasperation. "Why can't you just overlook this and congratulate her?"

"Because the next time she disobeys, the opposite may end up happenin'," Joel answered flatly.

Linda was about to counter, only to stop and understand the logic.

"Now let's focus and try and find a way outta here," Joel next said.

They look around the place.

"That door looks like a way out," Joel said as he points to the open set of double doors at the back on the walkway up above. "Hey, you see a way to get up there?"

"Nope," Ellie answered.

"Me neither," Linda replied.

Joel runs up onto the stage.

"Might be able to get through with this," Joel said as he goes up to a piano.

"That's the same piano," Linda noted.

Joel begins moving it.

"Goddamn, this is heavier than I thought. Hey, how 'bout a hand?"

"Right here," Linda said as she gets into position, and they push together.

"Ellie, we're gonna need you too," Joel said.

"You sure you can trust me with that?"

"Ellie."

She helps Linda and Joel push that piano. It moves more easily now and they push it all the way up to the corner.

"There, how's that?" Ellie said.

Joel takes a moment to stare at the keys, then idly plays them, finding it out of tune, then zips his fingers across them.

"Let's go," Joel said as he climbs atop of the piano.

He reaches the top and is followed by Linda whom he pulls up next, then Ellie.

"Hey look," Linda said while pointing behind them. "Part of the banner is still up."

"Prom 2013" Ellie read.

"Everything is still here," Linda sighed fondly as she looks back down at the auditorium below. "It's amazing those savages didn't trash this place. They certainly seem the type . . . Either they respect all this or they don't know about it yet."

"Then there's the fact that rebellion didn't touch here either," Joel added. "Now come on."

They turn away and hurry. Linda lingers a little longer on the scenery around her, then hurries after them. She feels both happy and sad.

They head through the doors and come to a dining room. The other door is barricaded, but over in the upper left corner is a pair of open windowed doors. Joel takes a moment to craft another nail bomb before going through those open doors and onto a balcony. A scaffold is set up next to that balcony and they climb over to it where they end up encountering a man, long dead and still sitting in a chair while gripping a rifle. Joel takes that rifle.

"They haven't gotten back yet," a man called out from below.

"Oh, shit!" Joel rasped as he ducks, causing the ladies to duck with him. It is hunters, two of them.

" . . . What the hell is taking them so long . . . ?"

" . . . I don't know. They went to check on 'em. For now, we wait . . . "

"Come here," Joel hissed to the others. "Keep your head down . . . Alright now . . . I'm gonna jump down there and I'm gonna clear us a path."

"What about us?" Ellie demanded.

"You two stay here."

"This is so stupid," Ellie protested. "We'd have more of a fucking chance if you'd let us help."

"Ellie's right," Linda added.

"I am," Joel said. "Now, Ellie, you seem to know your way around a gun. You reckon you can handle that?"

"Well, uh, I sorta shot a rifle before. But it was a rats."

"Rats?" Linda winced.

"With BBs."

"Well, it's the same basic concept," Joel explained. "Lift it up. Alright now, you're gonna wanna lean right into that stock. 'Cause it is gonna kick a hell of a lot more than any BB rifle."

"Okay," Ellie said as she leans into it.

"Go ahead and pull the bolt back. Grab it right there. Just tug it . . . There you go. Now as soon as you fire you're gonna want to get another round in there, quick. Listen to me - if I get in trouble down there you make every shot count. Yeah?"

"I got this," Ellie said.

"And what about me?" Linda asked.

"You know what to do with your gun," Joel said. "Although you might not get as much accuracy, you can still do damage with it from up here."

And he turns to leave, then stops.

"And just so we're clear about back there, Ellie," he said as he looks back. "It was either him or us."

And he climbs down.

"You're welcome," Ellie replied.

Joel carefully jumps down and sneaks close to them using the cover of the moveable concrete barriers. Linda can see him clearly. That is when another hunter comes running.

" . . . They're all dead. They're all fucking dead . . . !"

" . . . What the hell's he yapping about? Take a breath. Who's dead . . . ?"

" . . . The whole crew. The seventy-six lookout guys. Some fuckin' tourist killed them. Killed all of 'em . . . "

" . . . Shit. Have you talked to the boss . . . ?"

" . . . Yeah. He wants everyone to hold their ground. Watch the gate . . . "

" . . . Alright, you heard him. Search the area. Do not let anybody-what the fuck . . . ?"

There is an explosion and those three guys go flying while getting torn with shrapnel, courtesy of that nail bomb that Joel had chucked into their midst.

"And now the killing begins," Linda said grimly.

And so it goes. Joel kills off the hunters, with Ellie and Linda backing him up. Ellie proves the better shot due to her rifle, although Linda also drops some as well. Like the one who was about to come up on Joel, until she shot that hunter in his side and Joel rushed over to bludgeon him to death.

"Alright, come on down!" Joel called out after catching his breath.

They get down and hurry over to him as he is kneeling next to a dead hunter still clasping a gun. Joel takes that gun out of the dead hunter's hand.

"How'd we do?" Ellie asked Joel.

Joel takes the rifle from Ellie and sets it aside.

"How'd 'bout something a . . . little more you're size, Ellie," Joel said as he cocks it then hands it to her. It is a small semi-automatic.

Ellie moves to take the gun, but Joel pulls back.

"It's for emergencies only," Joel added.

"Okay," Ellie agreed, then takes it and tucks it into the back of her jeans.

"Now, the safety's on. Do you know how to switch it off?" Joel asked.

"I do," Ellie answered.

"Okay, you just . . . you gotta respect this," Joel said. "This is not-"

"Joel," Ellie said. "I'll be careful."

"You're doing the right thing, Joel," Linda said.

They search around the place, with Linda noting that this used to be the financial district. At one point, they look up at a man hanging from the tree.

"Whoa, Nelly," Ellie said with unease. "Harsh punishment."

"Shit. It ain't that much different from what the military does back in Boston," Joel said.

"I guess not," Ellie said.

They return to their search and come upon a corrugated steel door. Joel kneels down, gets his fingers in under the door, and lifts.

"Alright, do your thing, Ellie, Linda," Joel grunted.

"On it," Ellie said as she ducks inside, followed by Linda, who discovers that it is a delivery porch. Together, they pull on the chain.

"Come on. Stupid chain is stuck," Ellie fumed. "Hold on."

Ellie grabs a delivery cart and pushes it through so that Joel can let go.

"That's good thinkin'" Joel said as he crawls inside.

"That's obviously the only way to go," Linda said as she points to the truck entrance. "But those things make it too high to climb."

"How about you get me up there, Joel," Ellie said.

"Help me open this," Joel said as he takes hold of the cart. Ellie and Linda rush over to take hold of the door and lift. "I got it."

After pulling the cart out, prompting Ellie and Linda to drop the door. He pushes it in front of that entrance and climbs up on it and over the obstacles, which are a pair of air conditioners. Linda and Ellie follow. They find themselves standing before a short hallway with a shuttered window at the end. Alongside him is a workbench.

"Time to get to work," he said as he puts down his gear and takes out his weapons. Using more parts he scrounged, he goes to work on enhancing the guns once again. After a while, he finishes and they are on their way once again as they walk to the end of that hallway as there is a door leading out.

As they approach the end of the hallway, they next hear a man yelling at someone to keep running along with the noise of a diesel engine, as there is no glass in the window. Joel is quick to react by getting down and commanding the others to do so. Through that window, which still has its blinds on it, they see a man and woman run in from the left. Linda's heart grips at the sight of their terror stricken expressions.

Shots are heard and the couple fall with bloody wounds, causing Linda to gasp with fright.

"What do we do?" Ellie gasped.

"Nothing," Joel replied.

A military humvee drives up and stops. It has a machine gun mounted at the front with barbed wire on the top and a corpse tied to its bonnet. Two hunters, one of them with a shotgun, are sitting in the open back and jump out. Between those blinds and those hunters being busy with their victims, Linda hopes that they are not spotted.

The hunters walk up to the woman who tries to get up.

"No," Linda can hear that woman groan, tugging at her tear glands.

But the hunter with the shotgun shoots her at point blank range, causing Linda to stifle a squeal as she clamps her hand firmly over her own mouth. Their casualness over the ghastly deed sends a shiver through Linda's spine.

"Busy couple of days, huh?" The one with the gun said over the din of the engine.

"Whatever, man," the other answered as he searches the now dead woman. "Damn. No food. Old pair of shoes. They got nothin'. Let's go."

They jump into the back of the humvee and it drives off. Once they are gone, the trio arise.

"Oh man," Ellie gasped.

"Those heartless savages!" Linda spat as her anger boils.

"There ain't nothing we coulda done," Joel said.

"We know," Ellie sighed with frustration. "It's just . . . Oh, man."

"Let's just get to that bridge," Joel said as he turns to go out the door on his left.

They head into a hallway with another open door down to the right, which leads to a stairwell going up. The stairs are blocked the rest of the way up, but there is an open door to their left that takes them onto another floor. They hear voices coming from down the end of that hallway.

"Shit, Joel, Linda. Hunters," Ellie hissed.

Joel takes out his bat and sneaks down the hallway. Linda goes into action as she follows close behind with her pipe. Those hunters still speak.

" . . . Now all we need to find is this fucking pick-up truck trio . . . "

" . . . There better've been an army in that truck. How the fuck did they wipe out the entire crew over there . . . ?"

Joel springs into action and rushes around the corner. The man tried to raise the alarm but Joel clubs him. The other hunter comes rushing out of the open doorway in front, but Linda is quick to violently jab him in the jaw, knocking him back into that room. Having more space, she gives him a sharp blow across the head with the end of her pipe, knocking him senseless even further, and next follows up with a huge swing across his head, accenting it with a shriek. The hunter stumbles to the floor. Linda raises her pipe high and with a louder shriek brings it down upon his head again.

She keeps clubbing him over and over about the head, making a furious shriek with each blow she gives. Her rage boiling over.

"Linda! Stop! Stop! Enough! Enough!" Joel shouted as he grabs her arms. She turns to regard him with rage.

"He's dead already!" Joel emphasized. "Look!"

Linda struggles for a moment then finally calms and looks down at that hunter. His skull is now caved in, with blood pooling about his head. One of his eyes had popped out.

"He definitely won't be gettin' back up," Ellie said sarcastically.

Linda moans with empathy.

"That . . . That couple," she gasped. "I saw their faces! They were terrified!"

Her face then twists with rage. "And then those," with a hiss, "those savages! Those fucking savages . . . ! You saw how casual they were! As if they were killing bugs!"

"I know," Joel reprimanded softly.

Linda's expression turns to weariness and she sighs as that weariness overcomes her. She runs her hand through her bristly red hair.

"Will the world we knew ever return?" Her tone full of lament. "Will there ever come a time when this madness goes away . . . ? I-I mean sure it wasn't exactly paradise back then, but at least those kind of guys always wound up in prison. But now . . . now they're swaggering about the place as they murder with impunity."

Her throat tightens up as sorrow begins to take hold.

"This isn't my home anymore," she continued with a strained tone as grief now affects her expression. "I really hope my family never went through any this."

She begins sobbing and Joel clasps her shoulders.

"I keep forgettin' you never saw our world crumble," Joel said softly. "That you spent the past twenty years alone on a deserted island. But you gotta pull yourself together and understand that scum like them are commonplace now."

"I know, I know," Linda lamented as she waves. "But it's just so hard. It's like you said, I wasn't there to watch and experience the transition into Hell on Earth. I never had a chance to adapt to it. I was just taken and thrown into it."

"In the meantime, we still have to keep moving," Joel said.


	15. Chapter 14

They go through the building and end up exiting through a hole in an enclosed walkway as they climb down onto a delivery truck, then a van, and are back on the street once again. A brief jaunt takes them to a more open area where the entire wall of a second story of a building is missing.

"Joel. There's a guy up on that second floor right there," Ellie whispered as she points out that building in question.

"Yeah, I see him. Stay low."

That man in question is obvious as he is standing there in full view. Joel takes out his rifle, takes careful aim, and fires a round into that hunter's head. Another hunter comes barreling out through the door of that building, but the trio are quick to gun him down. Although the hunter is wearing an armored vest and helmet, he gets bullets in the legs and face. A Molotov Cocktail comes flying from up above and crashes near them, spilling liquid fire, and is quickly followed by another.

"There's two Molotov throwers up there," Joel said. "Stay here and cover me."

Linda and Ellie take aim at the remaining two hunters and shoot but miss, causing them to duck back. Joel is quick to run toward the doorway and up those stairs. Every second, a Molotov comes flying out through that missing wall. They fall short of threating Linda and Ellie.

Two shots are next heard from up above and no more Molotov Cocktails come hurling down. Joel soon emerges from the doorway.

"There may be more of 'em up ahead, so stay sharp," Joel said. "And watch out for that tripwire there." As he points it out being attached to the wrecked police car they are hiding behind.

They hurry up the street as they take cover behind ruined vehicles and run into a store.

"Look, another tripwire," Joel said as he points that one out. Linda has a closer look to see that it is attached to a nail bomb which in turn is attached to the wall.

Soon, three more hunters are heading their way. Since they are ignorant of the trio's presence, Joel takes aim at one of them with the rifle and fires, dropping him with a bullet through his sternum where his heart is. The other two react by taking cover and returning fire. Ellie and Linda shoot back and Joel is quick to exit and circle to one side. Linda can see him taking aim at one of the hunters and shoots him in the head right through one of his eyes. This causes the last hunter to panic and run into the store where Linda and Ellie are.

He forgets about the tripwire.

Shrapnel goes flying everywhere. Linda next feels a burning pain in her left arm, causing her to clutch at it while she falls down.

"Linda!" Ellie shouted with concern. "Joel, Linda's been hit!"

Joel rushes inside and checks out her wound. Linda now looks at it to see that it is a small one, yet a bloody one.

"It's just a graze, nothing to worry about," he said. "But it will need to be patched. Here, let me."

He fetches a medical kit out of his backpack and cleans that wound, then patches it up.

"There, that should do it. That was too damn close."

"Oh man. Endure and survive," Ellie sighed.

"What?" Joel asked. "Oh right . . . The comic book."

They walk out into the square.

"Tanks? They had tanks?" Linda mused as she walks up to one of them and strokes its armor plating. "I'm surprised they didn't use them against us."

"They have too much damage," Joel said.

Joel next starts making some more stuff with the things he scrounged. Linda looks around at the various buildings that she had once seen as she had been through this district one time. That being the Bradley & Partner, and the HS&L Credit Union. She also takes notice of the phrases spray painted on the walls: No Hope; We Won; and even the word, Free. That single word makes her sneer with disgust.

Linda notices the skeletons of four soldiers slumped over near a brick wall. Behind them are the words, Death For Freedom. She walks up to those skeletons, followed closely by Joel and and Ellie.

"Death for freedom," Linda read sarcastically. "Freedom from what . . . ? Their conscience?" Her tone full of contempt.

"Geez, I guess this is how it ended for this zone," Ellie said.

"Well, every battle's got a losing side," Joel said.

"What if they had families?" Ellie said.

"Everyone has a family. Best not to dwell on it."

"How can you not?"

Joel instead walks away and up to a nearby fire escape.

"Here. C'mere Ellie," he said as he stands underneath that ladder. She goes over and he crouches with his hands low to hoist her up. She grabs hold of that ladder's handle and pulls it down with a loud clang.

They climb up the ladder to the floor just above them, which is just above the security wall blocking the street. There is a section missing from the railing facing that wall and right before them on the other side is a white delivery van parked just underneath them.

"We're almost there," Joel said as he points out the Fort Pitt bridge, now looming larger into view.

They drop down onto it, then onto the street. Ellie walks up to a place with its gates closed. There is a sign on it that reads Military Preparation School.

"I stayed at a place like this," Ellie said. "Back in the Boston Quarters."

"Military Preparatory School," Joel read.

"FEDRA," Linda added as she reads the other line.

"Yeah, nice way of saying orphanage," Ellie said dryly."I wonder what happened to all these kids?"

"This place has been out for a good stretch," Joel said. "They ain't kids no more."

"They aren't kids anymore," Linda corrected.

"Meaning they're either hunters trying to kill us or they're dead," said Ellie.

"Or they got away," Joel added.

"But you don't believe that?" Ellie said.

"I believe in getting out of this city," Joel said. "Come on."

They next encounter a large movie poster up on the back of a building that features a bearded beastly-looking man cradling a woman close to him. The movie is titled, Dawn of the Wolf, Part 2.

"There's another one," Ellie mused. "These posters are everywhere."

"Oh, and I really wanted to see that movie," Linda said with fond regret, "but I had to leave on that sailing ship."

"I saw this right before the outbreak," Joel said.

"You did?" Ellie said. "Does he totally gut her by the end?"

"Nobody gets gutted. It's a dumb teen movie."

Linda snorts derisively.

"Who dragged you to see it then?"

"I don't know. Let's just stay focused, all right . . . ? Let's go through the alley."

As they do so, Linda hears the sound of a diesel engine and a wave of fright goes through her.

"It's that fucking truck," Ellie hissed.

"It's alright," Joel assured. "Just keep your head down."

They creep along and begin to hear men speaking. More hunters. Upon getting close enough, they soon hear them speaking from their hiding spot.

" . . . Why do you think? I want some . . . "

" . . . Yeah, I bet you do . . . "

" . . . Man . . . I saved your ass from that clicker last week . . . "

" . . . I'll think about it . . . "

" . . . I shoulda let your ass die back there . . . "

" . . . Oh, Jesus. I'll make you some if you quick bringing that up . . . "

" . . . It better be as good as you say it is . . . "

" . . . It's bacon. Of course it's good . . . "

Linda wonders what their next move should be. Taking them on may not be a good idea with that truck idling nearby. But that is their only escape route.

Joel creeps around to see a hunter walking away. He takes out a Molotov and hurls it at him, causing him to go up in flames. A hunter inside comes running out, only to get gunned down by Linda. Another shot is fired and Linda looks to see that Ellie had dropped another hunter that was peeking around a doorway with a shotgun.

The trio creep toward the street and Joel peeks around the edge, then holds up his hand to motion them to stop. Linda next watches him take out a smoke bomb and skulk off to one side. He hurls the smoke bomb and the white smoke comes up.

"Run!" He ordered as he sprints across the street to an open doorway in another building as Linda and Ellie are close behind.

They find themselves inside an office building with many desks and office dividers about the place. A hunter hurries inside, forcing the trio to duck for cover. Joel shoots him as he rounds the corner of an office wall, then takes out another who was in the process of climbing in through a window at the back.

The smoke bomb fades by this time as the din of fifty caliber machine gun fire goes off, followed by bullets tearing through the office from the side windows.

"What the fuck are they shooting at us with?" Ellie shouted over the fifty caliber din.

"Some kinda military turret," Joel shouted. "Just stay low!"

They race along as more bullets rip holes in the wall above them and wreck other stuff around them. Joel leads them into another office out of sight from the humvee. There is a window missing its glass in the back and they climb out through it, back to the outside with a wrought iron bar fence to their right.

If it were not for the police car, they would be dead as that Humvee pulls up and shoots off its gun once again. Using the car as cover, they run. Bullets whiz past them. They cut a corner and run down an alleyway. A hunter comes running, but he too is gunned down by Joel. Another hunter is up ahead at the end of that alleyway. He hides behind a police car and shoots at them. Linda takes careful aim and shoots him in the leg, causing him to flinch and fall. Joel finishes him off.

They round a building and a van provides them with cover as the Humvee drives up and starts shooting at them. Once again, Joel tosses another smoke bomb at it and the trio runs down another alleyway next to them. That is when they hear a crashing sound behind them, along with the revving of an engine.

"Oh, shit, they're smashing through!" Linda screamed as her heart pounds hard. The expectations of fifty caliber bullets ripping through her body comes to mind.

They turn the corner of another building just as the humvee begins rounding the corner of the other building behind them and shooting at them. There is an open door right there and they run inside. Linda slams it shut and they run to the back and up a flight of stairs.

"I think we lost 'em," he gasped.

"Good, I don't think I can keep running any longer," Linda gasped as she begins to feel tired.

They emerge on a floor where there are male and female washrooms at the back, both of which are blocked by a pair of soda dispensers. They check out the other rooms and find an open window where they can climb out onto a fire escape. They climb onto a ledge, as there are wooden planks out there. First goes Joel, then Ellie, and last Linda. Together they carefully make their way along the ledge. It is a wide ledge, so traversing it is fairly easy. They duck into apartments through open windows and go back out onto the ledge once again.

"Oh shit," Ellie exclaimed as the humvee drives into view at the mouth of an alleyway while driving down the street. Linda's heart also skips a beat.

"We're okay. They can't see us," Joel assured. Sure enough, the humvee keeps driving on without any indication that they saw the trio.

Joel enters the building and Ellie is quick to enter as she curses while taking out her knife. That is when Linda hears a commotion inside and manages to get inside in time to see Ellie getting knocked back and onto the floor while Joel struggles with a man and manages to flip his attacker over his front to the floor and begins punching him furiously. That is when she next notices a young Black boy pointing a gun at Joel, as does Ellie.

"Joel. Wait. Wait!" Ellie shouted.

"Joel, stop! Look," Linda finally bellowed as she points ardently at that gun-wielding boy.

Joel finally stops and notices him, then gets up and finally backs away with hands extended.

"Leave him alone," the boy said.

"Easy, son. Just take it easy," Joel said.

"It's alright. They're not the bad guys," the Black man on the floor said, then slowly gets up. "Man, you hit hard."

"Yeah, well I was trying to kill you," Joel said flatly.

"Yeah, I thought you were one of them too," the man continued. "Then I saw them." As he points from Ellie to Linda. "If you haven't noticed, they don't keep kids and women around. Survival of the fittest."

"How wrong they have it," Linda said contemptuously.

"You're bleeding," the boy said as he notes the slash on his arm that Ellie had given him.

"Ah, it's nothing," the man said. "I'm Henry. This is Sam. I think I caught your name was Joel?"

"Ellie," as she raised her hand, then gestures with it. "And she's Linda."

"How many are with you?" Joel said.

"They're all dead," Sam said.

"Hey. We don't know that," Henry chided, then fishes a bandage out and wraps it around his arm. "There were a bunch of us. Someone had the brilliant idea of entering the city. Look for supplies. Those fuckers - they ambushed us. Scattered us. Now its all about getting out of this shithole."

"We can help each other," Ellie said.

"Ellie," Joel said in a warning tone.

"Safety in numbers and all that," Ellie continued.

"She's got a point ,Joel," Linda said.

"They're right," Henry continued. "We could help each other. We got a hideout not far from here. Be safer if we chat there."

"Alright, take us there," Joel relented.

"Follow me," Henry said.

They head out of the apartment and down flights of the stairs.

"Sorry about the whole gun thing," Sam said apologetically.

"Don't worry, I would've probably done the same thing," Ellie said. "Where you from?"

"All the way from Hartford."

"Really? I heard some bad stuff going on down there."

"Yeah, the military abandoned the zone. It's why we left. Place probably looks like this by now."

"Oh, you can be sure it does," Linda stated grimly. "Now that there's no more law and order, they will be just like the hunters around here."

"We gotta be careful," Henry said. "We're right next to one of their lookout areas. Is it just you and your wife and daughter?"

"We're not related," Ellie said.

"And I only just met up with them," Linda interjected.

"Me and Joel are more like um-" Ellie struggled.

"I promised someone I'd look after Ellie," Joel said.

"Yeah, I can appreciate that," Henry said.

They enter a toy store called ChooChoo Toys. There are large bay windows that overlook the sidewalk.

"Wait, wait," Henry exclaimed as they hear the dreaded diesel engine. "Everyone be quiet. Get away from the windows."

They all duck down and the humvee drives into view. Linda feels her apprehension rising.


	16. Chapter 15

The Humvee drives by without the hunters knowing of their presence.

"They're gone," Henry said with relief as he stands, along with the others. "Man . . . that fuckin' truck. It's been hounding us ever since we got in this damn-Sam, what are you doing?".

Linda looks to see Sam holding one of those Transmuter robot toys.

"Nothing," he answered sheepishly.

"Get rid of it," Henry admonished.

"My backpack is practically empty."

"What's the rule about taking stuff?" Henry reprimanded as he walks up to him.

"It weighs like nothing," Sam protested.

"The rule," Henry demanded. "What is it?"

"We only take what we have to," Sam quoted and drops the toy.

"That's right."

Linda feels a sense of loss over what she now understands after being around Ellie: children having to grow up quickly because this world no longer affords them the luxury being children.

_Ellie might end up becoming a mother before her twentieth birthday_. Linda thought hollowly.

"Now come on," Henry said as he walks to the back.

The rest follow, but not before Linda notices Ellie picking up that toy and putting it into her backpack. She says nothing and smiles slightly.

"How far is this place?" Joel asked.

"We're close, real close," Henry answered as he opens the door that goes out to the loading dock.

The sound of voices are heard.

"Shit," Henry cursed as he ducks behind some crates, along with the others.

"Ellie, Linda, you watch our back," Joel said as he takes out a nail bomb and lights it.

"Sam, stay with them," Henry said.

Joel hurls the nail bomb into the midst of those hunters. The hunters take notice, but it is too late as it explodes, causing their now shredded bodies go flying.

"What the fuck was that?" Henry gasped.

"That was one of Joel's nail bombs," Ellie answered.

"Okay," Henry said with humorous unease as he gets up. "Anyway, we did it. Not bad, old timer . . . Come on, up on this truck."

They climb up a car and onto a delivery truck, then onto a roof. Up above on a higher roof, two more hunters come running from the left and take up positions behind a pair of ventilation units. A shootout happens, forcing the five to duck behind the ventilation units on the lower roof. Joel throws another nail bomb up there, which lands next to one of the hunters and explodes, sending him flying to one side. This unnerves the last one as he gets up and starts firing wildly at them down below. Joel takes careful aim from around the ventilation unit and fires, dropping the hunter.

They climb up to that area and cross over to the other building via a wooden plank placed over the gap between them, and through an emergency exit door.

"Through this door," Henry said as he walks up to a pair of double doors.

"Are you sure it's safe being so close to them?" Joel asked.

"I'm the only one with the key, man," Henry answered as he shows it to Joel.

"And where did you get that?" Joel asked.

"I killed one of them. He won't miss it now," Henry answered proudly as he unlocks the doors and opens them. "Everyone through. It's back here."

Judging by the layout, it is an architectural firm. They go to the back of the room and up to a door where a sign with the name Colleen Raqueno, the CEO of Spenzur Architecture, is attached.

"Welcome to my office," Henry quipped over his shoulder at them as he leads them inside. It is a spacious office, fit for a CEO.

"How long have you guys been hold up in here?" Ellie asked.

"A few days," Sam answered. "We found a bit of food though. Here."

"Blueberries," Henry said to Linda and Joel, who is staring out a window. "Found a whole stash of 'em. You want some?"

"Ah, I'll have some, please," Linda said eagerly. Though she had been eating berries that grew on that island, none were blueberries.

Henry waves her over and Linda goes and gets a handful, then starts eating them. That distinctive blueberry taste was something that she had missed as none of those berries on that island had that taste.

"Oh, Joel, you gotta try these," Linda said gleefully as she walks over to him.

"No," Joel said dourly with a somber look as he continues staring out that window.

"Hey man, relax," Henry assured him. "We're safe."

"So why haven't you left?" Joel asked.

"Been waiting for the right opportunity."

"And?" Joel pressed in a seemingly humorous fashion.

"Here. Check this out." As Henry walks over to a window, Joel and Linda follow. They look out a window with a view below of a fence with a group of hunters hanging around it.

"That's the Fort Pitt Bridge!" Linda stated around a mouthful.

"So that's the bridge's name, eh," Henry mused, then turns serious. "But look at these sons of bitches. Every day, they congregate down there. Guarding that damn bridge. Come night time, it's down to a skeleton crew. After sunset, that's our window. With most of them gone, sneak right past them."

"That could work," Joel mused.

"Oh, it'll work," Henry said assuredly. "It'll definitely work."

Having finished off her blueberries, Linda returns to Ellie and Sam as they are tossing blueberries into their mouths.

"You have any more blueberries?" Linda asked.

"Yeah, sure," Sam said as he hands her another handful. "You know . . . Of all the people me and Henry have ever met, we've only met two other people with hair as red as yours."

"Oh really," Linda mused as she starts eating. "And when was that?"

"It was back in Hartford. There was a boy my age, along with his mother. Don't know what happened to them after the zone fell . . . But I think they went somewhere else."

"Maybe," Linda said with a hint of loss. She now understands the number of people who have died off while she was still on that island and it fills her with gloom.

Linda next notices Henry taking out a piece of paper and notices that it is a map as he lays it out on a table. She goes over to investigate.

"This is us," Henry said as he points a place out on that map. "There's an abandoned military radio station just outside the city. Any survivors from our group, they're supposed to meet us there-tomorrow. If you two and the girl want to join us, it does down tonight."

"I guess we best rest up then," Joel said.

They do just that, but the day doesn't seem to end all the more quickly. They take this time to sleep, especially Linda as she does doze off. She is soon awakened by Ellie to discover that it is night time, and that it is time. Next is Joel, and together they walk over to Henry as he is in serious conversation with Sam.

"Now we're gonna be moving fast, okay?" Henry said intently. "So no matter what, you stick to me like glue."

"Like glue," Sam echoed.

"Like glue." Henry repeated.

"Got it," Sam verified.

"Good. Good," Henry said approvingly, then turns to the trio. "All right, y'all ready?"

"Yeah," Joel said.

"Okay . . . All right, y'all stay close, okay?"

"You tried this before?" Joel asked.

"Uh, yeah," Henry lied.

"That's comforting," Joel said wryly.

"Relax old man."

"I just hope you know the way," Joel said.

They pass through another room with a large model of the Fort Pitt Bridge in the center of the room.

"This way," Henry directed as he goes out another door, which leads them down a stairwell and into a warehouse.

Up ahead are two hunters warming themselves by the fire with their backs turned to them. Joel is quick to turn his light off.

"Okay, let's try to take them out quietly," Henry whispered to Joel. "Hey, I'll follow your lead."

"All right," Joel agreed.

Linda watches as they sneak up on those hunters, who continue to remain oblivious. Joel throttles the first one with his headlock and Henry slits the throat of the other. They turn and sneak out of the warehouse and Linda follows, along with Ellie and Sam. But outside is a floodlight trained on something far to the back, causing Linda to take cover alongside the exit. Shots are fired and over it a shrill squeal. More hunters can be heard.

" . . . Hey, you hear that? Clicker . . . !"

" . . . Yeah, I hear it, but I don't see shit . . . !"

Another shot is fired, to be followed by the dying cries of the clicker.

" . . . Woo! Nailed it. Did you see that shit . . . ?"

" . . . Not bad . . . "

"Yo, Joel," Henry whispered next to him, "there's a guy on that light up there."

"I see 'em," Joel said as he takes aim with his rifle, then fires, knocking the light out and raising an uproar among the hunters.

Joel, Henry, and Linda immediately go to work wiping out the rest of the hunters. With the first casualty being the one up by the floodlight. Keeping their position so as not to confuse each other in the dark, they snipe the rest of the hunters that scurry around. The hunters are clearly not that professional as the darkness causes them to freak out and run about. One by one, the hunters are dropped until none are left alive.

"All right, we did it," Henry exclaimed.

They hurry up to the gate: a large set of steel doors. Next to them the generator to the light is still running.

"Henry, Linda," Joel said, "gimme a hand with this."

"Alright," Henry as he gets into position.

"You ready?" Linda inquired as she too has her hands upon those doors.

They push with all of their strength. Linda finds they are not locked, just heavy. Lights to her left catch her attention, along with the others, and she glances to see the dreaded Humvee driving toward them. This spurs them to push all the harder and they finally get those doors open and rush through. They close them just as that Humvee stops in front of them, but Henry is able to lock the gate as it has that latch attached to it.

"Hey, they're over here!" A hunter suddenly yelled from behind them up on a delivery truck, only to be dropped with gunfire.

"Got 'em," Henry said as he puts his gun away. "Come on everyone."

"Keep your eyes open, we ain't out of this mess yet," Joel said as they run toward that delivery truck where those now dead hunters are.

On the side of that delivery van is a very short ladder.

"Alright, check it out," Joel said to Henry, who then gets hoisted up to the top by grabbing hold of that ladder.

Henry looks around. "We're good. Sam, let's go."

"Alright, kid, c'mon, there you go," Joel said as he hoists Sam upward to grab onto that ladder.

"Come on," Henry said as he kneels down to give a helping hand, only to look toward the lights of that Humvee now spilling in around the cracks of the gate. The engine is heard revving up.

"Oh shit," Henry cursed.

"Open the gate!" A hunter was next heard loud and clear.

"Hurry, hurry," Joel shouted upward as he pushes Sam upward and Henry pulls him up, then it's Ellie's turn.

"They locked it!" Another hunter is heard.

As Ellie grabs hold of that ladder and it breaks off. Henry is quick to grab her and pull her up.

"Move outta the fucking way!" A hunter commanded. "We're going to ram it!"

There is a crash from the gate and it buckles outward.

"Okay, we gotta get them up," Ellie said once she is standing once again.

There is another crash once again, and this time the gate buckles out even more.

"I'm sorry. We're leaving," Henry lamented.

"What?" Sam and Linda exclaimed simultaneously.

Another crash, and the gate buckles out even more.

"What? This is bullshit," Ellie exclaimed.

"You can't leave us!" Linda cried.

Henry turns and runs as he pulls Sam along. Another crash at that gate and this time, more light is able to shine through the opening where the gates meet together.

"What the fuck, Henry?" Ellie shouted, then jumps back down to join Joel and Linda. "We stick together."

They run over to a building behind them with a closed corrugated metal shutter. Joel and Linda manage to lift it just as the Humvee comes crashing through, firing its machine gun.

"C'mon into the building! Let's go!" Joel shouted, spurring Ellie and Linda to dash inside and grab hold of the chain and allow Joel to enter.

"Okay, go," Linda and Ellie shouted simultaneously.

Bullets rake the shutter just as Joel crawls inside. Linda and Ellie let go and the shutter drops as bullets continue to ping against the metal, raising small dents all over it.

"Oh fuck!" Ellie shouted.

"Go around to the other side!" A hunter in that Humvee bellowed, and they hear it driving away. They look around to see that they are in the storage room of some building.

"How the fuck do we get outta here?" Ellie demanded.

They exit the room through a door and learn that they have entered a tavern with a pair of pool tables nearby, and quickly learn that they are not alone.

" . . . The hell is going on back there . . . ?"

" . . . Sounds like they found 'em . . . "

" . . . Spread out. They might come through here . . . "

Joel, Ellie, and Linda sneak to the back of the storage space to see it connected to a bar. Again it needs to be in the dark. They get behind the bar and wait. Sure enough, they hear footsteps coming. Linda watches as Joel takes out a shiv and waits for that hunter to get closer. In a flash, Joel rises and grabs that hunter, then plunges his shiv into his neck. Linda pops up with gun out yet low over the bar and gets a fix on another surprised hunter and fires, hitting him square in the chest and he falls. Another one darts around the corner and she is quick to shoot him. At first, she gets him in the arm, but quickly corrects her aim and ends up getting him through the top of his head as he is doubled over. She ducks back down, not wanting to push her luck.

"Linda, Ellie, lay down some cover fire," Joel hissed as he takes out one of his infamous nail bombs.

They do so, keeping the other hunters out in the other room ducking away. Joel hurls that nail bomb in through that door and the trio take cover. A second later, the bomb explodes and Joel gets up and runs out of the room. There is a moment of silence.

"Okay, come on out," Joel called out.

The next room is apparently the main room as there are large windows of a circular design with a counter circling the room and a balcony up above. There are large bay windows that allow moonlight to brighten the interior.

"If that truck gets here, we're screwed," Linda said.

"We should be out of here before then," Joel said as he removes a cart that blocks a pair of doors, revealing a chain wrapped around the handles and padlocked. He is still able to open them partway.

"Alright, let's get underneath it," he said. First Ellie, then Linda, and finally Joel crawl out and go down the steps. Before them looms the Fort Pitt Bridge in all of its brassy glory. Linda feels relieved and they jog toward it.

"Fuckin' open it! Go!" A hunter shouted over the din of the Humvee's engine as it rams the other gate to the left and behind them.

Linda's heart seems to jump up into her throat and the trio run full out to that bridge. The Humvee crashes through, bathing them in its light.

"There! They're running to the bridge!" Another hunter was heard shouting, and the machine gun starts firing upon the trio.

* * *

**Note:**

**Transmuter - Transformer**


	17. Chapter 16

The Humvee's headlights illuminate the fleeing trio and bullets from the vehicle's machine gun continues whizzing past them, punching holes in vehicles and signs about them. Adrenaline surges through Linda as she keeps feeling that any second now those bullets will be tearing through her body. A single fifty caliber bullet is lethal enough, let alone a dozen.

They run through a passageway created by a delivery truck and bus, only to stop before a missing section of the bridge before them that shows the raging river down below. All at once, Linda feels defeated. She can hear the truck coming to a stop as it slams on its breaks and starts backing up.

"How many bullets do either of you have left?" Joel demanded.

"They're gonna kill us," Ellie exclaimed.

"What other choice do we have?" Joel exclaimed.

"We jump," Ellie suggested.

"She's right," Linda stated quickly. "We've a better chance of surviving than going up against them."

"No, it's too high and she can't swim," Joel yelled. "I'll boost you both up: run past 'em."

The sound of the Humvee's engine gets their attention along with its lights as they hear it speed forward. It rams into the delivery truck, nudging it forward despite it being on its side. It ends up pushing a car ahead of it over into the river below.

"You'll both keep me afloat," Ellie said.

"Ellie," Joel waved dismissively.

The Humvee rams the truck again.

"Here they come!" Linda cried out.

"No time to argue," Ellie said and she jumps over the edge.

Linda is quick to hurl herself off and toward the girl, then manages to grab hold of her in midair. Linda takes a deep breath before they hit the water seconds later so as not to suddenly inhale from the shock of the cold water as they go under. She still manages to keep a firm hold of Ellie as she kicks her legs and manages to resurface while trying to keep Ellie's face up out of the water. The river current proves strong as they are washed along. Linda sees Joel in the river just ahead of them.

"Joel," Ellie screamed.

"Joel," Linda screamed next.

Linda sees Joel swimming toward them.

"I got you," he next shouted as he grabs hold of them. "No-no, no, no."

In that next instance, she feels herself getting slammed against something hard. If not for Joel, she might have broken ribs. Now she fears for Joel as his grip suddenly loosens and Linda grabs his arm on a reflex. Linda finds it difficult to hold onto him as the river tosses her about and periodically dunks her and Ellie, threatening to loosen her grip upon him.

"Ellie! You still with me?!" Linda shouted.

"Yeah!"

"Then grab hold of Joel's arm as firmly as you can!"

Ellie does so with both hands. Psyching herself up Linda lets go of Ellie and snakes her other arm under Joel's arm and around to his back as fast as she can, getting a firm grip on his collar and getting his arm over her shoulder.

"Get your right arm around my back and tuck your hand underneath my right armpit!"

Ellie does so as she can feel the girl's fingers in her armpit. It doesn't tickle her, fortunately, and Ellie ends up pressing her face into Linda's face.

"Good girl, now do the same to Joe, then grip his collar like I'm doing!"

"Got it!" Ellie proclaimed as Linda can now feel the girl's fingers brushing against her own.

The trio are now facing each other, with Joel's beard brushing against their faces, making them more buoyant now.

"Nice thinking, Linda! Now what?!"

"Now we just float for a time until we get into calmer water!"

They float on down the river for what seems like hours to their perspectives. They end up bumping against an outcrop of rocks sticking up out of the water. The water threatens to engulf them.

"Now what?" Ellie asked.

"Now we roll off!" Linda said.

"Hey, guys!" A familiar voice shouted to them from above.

Linda and Ellie manage to look up and see two figures. With the water hampering Linda's vision, it is hard to see them. They figure they must be the hunters coming to kill them at last.

"Hey, Linda, Ellie, it's us!" Another familiar voice this time.

"Henry! Sam! Get us outta here!" Ellie cried.

"Hang on!" Henry shouted.

Linda next feels his hand grabbing hold of her shirt by the collar.

"Okay, Sam, you get Ellie!"

Ellie lets go of Linda and carefully stretches her hand out. Sam takes her hand and starts pulling her up. Linda helps by slipping her hand underneath Ellie and pushing her up. Ellie is able to get a foot on Linda's shoulder and climb out. Linda quickly clasps Joel with her now freed hand. Linda can feel Henry letting go of her, then next fells his hands gripping Joel by his collar.

"I got Joel, don't worry!" Henry yelled. "Sam, you help Ellie pull Linda up!"

Linda lets go of Joel and carefully extends her left hand upward and has it grabbed, she cannot see who had grabbed it yet. She lets go of Joel and extends her other hand upwards, having to cross them over each other in order to have it grabbed by the other. She looks up to see that Sam and Ellie both have one of her arms and pull. Linda uses her feet to try and walk herself up as an aid.

She finally clears the top and now turns her attention to Joel as all four of them now have a hold of him. Together, they pull him up. When his arms come up, threatening to tear his shirt and have him slip out of it, Linda grabs one arm and Ellie the other. Together they pull him clear of the water. Once on the rocks, all four carry him to the sandy shore and lay him down.

"I don't think any water got into him," Linda said.

"I'll look out and see if any of those bastards are coming," Henry said and walks away, leaving the others with Joel.

Joel suddenly shifts and groans, sending relief through Linda.

"Henry! He's awake," Sam called out.

"Hey, you. We're alive," Ellie said softly to Joel as he opens his eyes and lifts his head.

"You had us worried there for a second," Linda said as she is kneeling alongside him on his other side.

"See? What'd I tell you, huh?" Henry beamed as he walks toward them. Joel gets up and starts walking toward Henry. "He's good. Everything's fine. You know. Sam's the one that spotted you. You guys have taken quite a bit of water, when-"

In a flash, Joel grabs his gun and shoves him down. "What the fuck's wrong with you?" Henry exclaimed as Joel now stands over him with his gun pointing down at him.

"Henry," Sam shouted.

"Get back, son!" Joel bellowed as he momentarily points the gun at Sam.

"It's fine," Henry warded Sam off. "Hey, hey, hey, hey . . . He's pissed, but he's not gonna do anything."

"You sure about that?" Joel growled menacingly. His tone sends a chill down Linda's spine. She has not know him for long but knows that he can be quick to kill if threatened.

"Stop!" Sam shouted.

"Joel," Ellie and Linda pleaded simultaneously.

"He left us to die out there," Joel said grimly.

"No. You had a good chance of making it and you did," Henry explained. "But coming back for you meant putting him at risk." Pointing to Sam, then cautions him to stay back. "If it was the other way around, would you have come back for us? I saved you."

"He saved us too," Ellie said. "We would've drowned."

"Think about it, Joel," Linda added intently as she clasps his shoulder. "He easily could've kept running and never look back."

"She's absolutely right," Henry said as he points at Linda. "I was actually tempted to keep running, forcing Sam all along the way. But I came back . . . And all three of you are alive now because of us."

Joel finally lowers the gun and curtly tosses it down with a growl, then walks away.

"It's fine though. I'm okay," Henry said as he gets up while picking up his gun. "Y'know, for what it's worth. I'm really glad we spotted you . . . Now, that radio tower is on the other side of this cliff. Okay? Place is gonna be full of supplies. You're gonna be really happy you didn't kill me."

They walk down the sandy beach of the wide Ohio River. Up ahead is a rotting tugboat that had ran ashore so long ago.

"Hey, we're gonna search this area," Henry said as he walks toward a trail that exists because of a large piece of land. "See what we come up with."

"That was intense," Ellie said to Joel. "You cool?"

"Yeah. Let's go find that radio tower."

"Hey, maybe we can find something in that boat over there," Ellie said.

"Keep your eyes peeled," Henry called back as he stands at the mouth of that trail.

"Way ahead of you, kid," Joel said.

Joel, Ellie, and Linda walk up to that wrecked tugboat and search it.

"Whoa," Ellie said.

"What?" Joel asked.

"First time on a boat," she answered.

"Well, it's a little bit different in the water."

"This is a tugboat," Linda said. "It's purpose was to pull things like barges or other ships."

Joel stares down the beach and sees high rocks. "I can't go that way."

"One step at a time," Ellie said. "For a second there, I thought you might shoot him."

"Yeah, almost did."

"They're alright," Ellie said. "I think it's good to have 'em around."

"I think you're right," Joel agreed.

"Did everyone have boats back then?" Ellie next asked.

"Yeah, I had a sixty foot yacht," Joel fibbed.

"Really?"

"No."

"Sarcasm . . . Making progress. What about you, Linda?"

"No, I didn't. Fact is many people didn't own any boats. And most who did were just those simple rowboats that they could stick an outboard motor onto."

"Hey Ellie," Sam suddenly called for an overcrop with a stream flowing down. "I think we found something!"

"Let's go see what it is," Ellie said.

The trio follow Sam up the stream all the way to up Henry as he stands next to a large steel sewer grate cover.

"Hey, I bet this goes all the way through," Henry said, then clasps the bottom. "Gimme a hand with this."

Joel and Linda help Henry lift that sewer grate cover, then urge the kids to hurry in. They go in next, allowing the cover to drop.

"Hey, flashlights out," Henry said as he turns his on, prompting the others to turn theirs on, and starts walking down the several foot high sewer pipe. "Sam, stay-"

"Stay close. I know," he interrupted.

"Someone's finally learning," Henry said.

"You think we might run into any hunters?" Linda said.

"I don't think so," Henry said.

"But there are infected we need to worry about," Joel said.

"You know," Linda began, "the infected are bad enough, but at least they can't help it and are limited in their mental capacities. Those hunters on the other hand chose their way of life and can outsmart you if you're not smarter than them."

"But hunters can be scared off," Henry said. "You can't scare off the infected, so they just keep comin' after you."

They walk down the sewer passage and into the main area where there are signs and doors. Nature is also beginning to take over as corrosion is everywhere. They come upon a fork in the sewers. Linda and Ellie watch as Joel ducks in through a narrow channel that he has to crouch through.

"See anything?" Ellie yelled to him.

Joel soon returns to them. "Nothing."

"Joel, we should see what's over there," Ellie said as she points to the right.

"Alright, we'll check this side out," Henry said referring to the left.

Linda follows Joel and Ellie.

"I'm not a fan of this place," Ellie said.

"Me neither," Joel said. "But we ain't got much of a choice."

"Guess we're going to have to be on our guard if what Joel said is true," Linda added.

They happen upon another area with a room partitioned off by a chain link door. Joel tries to open it.

"It's blocked," he said, noting the debris up against it.

"If you can get it open," Ellie said as she points to a small grate in the wall down on the floor next to the room, "I can crawl through and clear that door."

Joel kneels down and pulls it off, out pops a large squeaking rat that runs off, causing Linda to gasp.

"Oh yeesh. That is a big rat," Ellie noted uneasily.

She crawls through the passage and soon emerges into that room and removes that which was blocking the door.

"And voila." As she opens it.

Joel and Linda enter and look around, but find nothing and leave.

"Do you think Henry and Sam will join us all the way to Tommy's?" Ellie asked.

"Well, I don't know," Joel answered. "We're just gonna have to see how everything pans out."

"Who's Tommy?" Linda asked.

"My brother. He used to be a member of the Fireflies, but now lives in Wyoming."

"You know, it's funny we never thought about it," Ellie mused. "But I guess with all the craziness that happened, we never took the time to talk about it."

"About what?" Joel asked.

"About Linda," as she looks at the red-haired woman. "About her sticking with us."

"Hey, this way," Henry suddenly bellowed from back where they came. "Looks like there's a path up ahead. Right here."

The trio catch up to Henry and Sam and are led the rest of the way out into a large reservoir with a pipe going up to the top. There is a hole over in the left side with a car hanging precariously. Another car had fallen down through that hole with its end still sticking up out of the water, which was long ago as it is covered in moss and a tree had grown up around it.

"Can we get out this way?" Sam said as he looks up at a ledge high up.

"Nah. There's no way to reach that," Henry said dismissively.

"Well, I can't swim," said Sam.

"That makes two of us," Ellie noted.

"Alright, Joel, how do we get across?" Henry asked.

"Guess we gotta figure somethin' out," he shrugged.

"Hey, this thing's on some kind of track. Maybe there's a way we can use it," Henry noted as he points up to the ceiling and they indeed see a track that runs from this side of the room to the other side, up next to what looks to be the exit.

Joel walks up to a pressure wheel and tries to turn it. "It's jammed."

"Look. A generator," Ellie said as she points to the other side where one is set up.

"Y'all wait there," Joel said as he gets into the water and swims over to their point of destination.

Linda winces at how casually he got into the water once again without removing his clothes and wonders if she is going to have to be swimming fully clothed once again.


	18. Chapter 17

At the other side, it is shown that Joel cannot climb up and next swims over to the large wide steel grate and dives. Linda can make out through the distorting effects of the water as he struggles with something underwater.

He finally resurfaces.

"Henry, give it a shot."

"Alright," Henry called back as he tries out that jammed wheel and ends up turning it. "Yep, it's workin'."

The grate next to Joel starts rising to reveal another area.

"I'm gonna have a look," Joel said. "Keep an eye out."

He swims into the other area. All Linda can hear is the sound of water swishing. She next hears the sound of something wooden clunking against metal, to be quickly followed by a loud splash.

More splashing is heard and Joel returns pushing a pallet.

"Oh - this thing again," Ellie said dryly.

"Let's go, Ellie," Joel said as he parks it alongside and Ellie jumps on, then crouches down to keep her balance.

"Oh, there you go. That's smart," Henry said with approval.

"Ahh, I can't wait to get out of this place," Ellie sigh with frustration.

Joel ferries her over to the other side where she manages to climb up onto that side.

"Alright, see if that generator still got some juice," Joel said.

"Come on, guys. That's our cue," Linda said as she gets upon that platform while waving for Henry and Sam to follow.

"Here goes nothin'," Ellie said and starts it up, showing that the generator still works and carries Linda, Henry, and Sam across.

"Huh, I can't believe this actually worked," Sam said with amazement.

"Yeah, don't jinx us," Henry said.

"I don't wanna have to get my clothes wet again," Linda quipped, remembering back to when she had to swim in that new pool next to the hotel. There is still some dampness in her clothes.

They arrive over where Ellie is and get off. Henry helps pull Joel up.

"I gotta say I'm impressed with you two," Henry said respectfully.

"We're pros at this by now," Ellie said dismissively.

They walk down the tunnel until they come upon a door that is surrounded by a drawing of castle walls.

"Uh. What's up with this?" Ellie asked.

"You think there's people inside?" Sam asked.

"Maybe," Henry said.

"Are we really going in there?" Ellie asked with uncertainty.

"No other choice," Joel said as he walks up to that door.

He pushes it open and a plastic crate suddenly drops a bunch of glass bottles.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. It's a sound trap," Henry stated.

"A what?" Ellie mused.

"It's a sort of alarm," Joel answered.

"I don't hear anything," Ellie said.

"Someone used to live here," Joel said. "Don't look like that's the case anymore."

"Who would stay in here?" Sam asked with a wry expression as he looks around.

"Well, someone who thought they could keep a place like this safe," Henry said.

"I guess it just goes to show that living underground is not a long-term solution for humans," Linda added.

Joel takes a sawed off shotgun fashioned into a flintlock pistol off of a nearby table and keeps it. Linda stares at the sign posted on the wall that are the house rules:

**Make sure doors are locked.**  
**Ask for a password if you don't know the visitor.**  
**No shouting and noisy play.**  
**Run to hiding spot when you hear the alarm**.

They walk throughout the tunnel system, coming upon attempts at establishing a viable community, including a school system and a soccer court. Ellie and Sam partake of a little soccer, with Sam as the goalie. Ellie kicks the ball at Sam and it goes high, but he catches it.

"Henry, did you see that?" Sam exclaimed.

"Let's keep it down, buddy, okay?" Henry admonished him softly.

"Yeah, sorry," Sam said sheepishly, and puts the ball down.

"That was great, Sam," Linda praised.

"Don't praise him too much," Henry said flatly.

"Why not?" Linda asked.

Henry's expression suddenly turns somber and he opens his mouth while collecting his thoughts.

"Let's just say that I was like Sam when I was his age," he answered in a tone to match his face. "But I ended up causing the death of someone close."

Linda is about to press for details, but decides to leave it alone. Although the way he said that means it may have been a parent or sibling.

"Let's keep searching for a way outta here," Joel said.

As they head down another path, they hear animalistic raspy screeches from up ahead.

"You hear that? Infected," Ellie said seriously.

"Quiet," Joel shushed.

They turn a corner and come to a door of bars. Joel carefully opens it and exits into another tunnel of the sewer system, with the other four close behind. A cry suddenly sounds from out of a passageway directly across from them and a runner comes charging out screaming. Joel shoots it dead.

More cries are heard.

"There's three more heading our way!" Ellie shouted as three screaming runners come charging out from up ahead.

The others open fire, killing the runners. A clicker comes charging up from behind them screaming and waving its arms about. They also shoot that one dead as well, and their surroundings go quiet.

"Well I guess we know what happened to these people," Ellie said.

"Seeing how there was a clicker, they've been gone for awhile," Joel said as he kicks at the clicker's corpse.

"We keep moving forward," Henry said. "All we can do is hope that there aren't any more of 'em . . . Doubtful I know."

They search through the place. Joel and Linda enter a large room with a dead man slumped in a chair in the corner. Next to him is a tarp covering more corpses. Their little feet sticking out from underneath.

_They Didn't Suffer._

Are the words they see in large print on the floor in chalk.

"Oh god," Linda gasped as she covers her mouth.

"I get the feelin' they weren't infected," Joel said.

Back outside, they continue their search.

"Hey," Ellie suddenly said as she takes notice of something above her. "You think that leads out?"

"Could be," Henry answered. "It's too high for a boost. Maybe there's another way to get there."

Joel walks up to a door of bars and opens it.

"Oh shit. Get back!" He suddenly yelled and a large steel door drops, cutting him and Sam off from the others. There are four small barred windows in it.

"Sam!" Henry yelled as he is the first one there.

"Yeah, I'm cool," Sam assured him.

"That was me," Joel said. "I must've triggered some kind of safety gate or somethin'. Henry, Linda, see if we can lift this."

Linda and Henry attempt to slip their fingers underneath, but are unable to do so.

"So. This is awkward," Ellie said.

"Yeah. I know," Henry said, "it's like everytime-"

Screeching comes from their right and Linda gasps.

"Clickers," Ellie gasped.

"Hey, this thing isn't budging, man," Henry said desperately to Joel.

"We can't even get our fingers underneath," Linda added.

The screeching gets louder still.

"Just go, get outta here," Joel commanded.

"Sam. You stay close to him," Henry instructed.

Linda can now see the shapes of the clickers running toward them through the darkness up above to their right, compelling her to take out her gun.

"Henry, Linda, we gotta fuckin' move!" Ellie shouted.

"You keep him safe!" Henry commanded Joel.

"Go!" Joel shouted.

They run down a tunnel to their right as the clickers run into then through the room in pursuit of them.

Up ahead, Linda can see that there is another tunnel leading off and wonders which way to go.

"Keep left!" Henry suddenly shouted as if he had heard her thoughts.

They pass that other tunnel and two more clickers come running out. Ellie shoots them both, dropping them. Once again, they come to another turn in the tunnel like the first one, and again they keep going left. And again, more infected come running out of that other tunnel, this time with runners included. Throughout it all Linda can feel her exhaustion creeping in. The infected also seem to be slowing down as well, but they are not showing signs of giving up.

"Fucking thing!" Ellie yelled in frustration as she keeps firing back at them.

They head into a more open area.

"Joel! Sam!" Linda called to them upon seeing them.

The five reunite.

"Sam," Henry gasped with relief as he clasps Sam's shoulders.

"Oh thank God," Ellie gasped as she stops momentarily. "We gotta keep running. Doorway - over there! Run! There's too many of 'em!""

They run through it with the infected in hot pursuit. Once everyone is through, Joel slams the door shut. The door shivers from the furious pounding the shrieking infected deliver upon it from the other side.

"Ellie get away from the door!" Joel admonished.

Henry pushes on a barred door leading off to the left.

"Maybe if we push it together," Henry said.

Joel and Linda help him by pushing on it.

"That pipe's jamming it," Linda said.

"Sam," Ellie shouted, and they look to see him disappear in through a vent on the bottom. "He just crawled through!"

"He what?" Henry exclaimed. Sam emerges on the other side where they have to go. "Sam, what the hell are you doing?"

"Getting us outta here!" Sam said firmly as he gets to his feet and runs over to the door.

"Well hurry up then," Henry stated.

Sam pulls on the pipe. It takes some effort, but he succeeds in removing it and opening the door.

"Alright, go," Joel stated, and they all run through.

"Everyone upstairs. Let's go!" Henry shouted.

They run down a hallway and find themselves in a maintenance elevator room. The floor grating they are running on is damaged and fallen down, causing them to run into the level underneath. They end up entering a room through one of two entrances. There are barred windows up above, along with panels and lockers about the place. There is a steel door with an open window above it.

"Damn thing's stuck!" Henry said as he tries the door.

"Here, gimme a boost," Ellie said as she approaches. "I can get through that window."

She is hoisted up.

"Open it from the other side," Henry said.

"Make it fast," Joel added.

After Ellie climbs through, Henry turns to Sam. "Hey, c'mon, Sam. You're not staying in here."

"What about you?" Sam asked.

"I'll be fine." As Henry pushes Sam forward and lifts him. "Come on. Go."

Sam reaches the top, crawls through that window, and disappears down below outside.

Joel, Linda, and Henry check their guns, then turn and face the coming onslaught as they can now hear the distant screeches of the infected. They space themselves out slightly so as to give each other room to shoot safely. The screeching gets louder and Joel has a nail bomb out.

"Get ready," Joel said and hurls the nail bomb out to where they had come from. The sound of feet on metal is now just beyond their sight.

"Fuck. Here we go," Henry proclaimed.

An explosion announces the arrival of the infected, then nothing. A few seconds later, more infected, runners, come running and screaming into the room. The trio open fire, dropping them. Next, a clicker comes charging in while screaming and savagely clawing at the air. All three simultaneously fire a shot into it and it drops with gaping wounds.

As if right on cue the door opens behind them, if only halfway.

"Alright - move," Joel exclaimed as he grabs Linda and shoves her through. "Let's go, let's go."

Linda is outside and ends up breathing fresh air. She notices that there is a forest surrounding them. An abandoned van is nearby. Next is Henry to come out and Linda grabs him and hauls him out. Joel slides out next. There is a drink dispenser alongside the door. Joel shuts the door and together they push that drink dispenser in front of it.

"Fresh air," Henry said with relief.

"Look at this," Sam said, and they look to see a sentence spray-painted on the wall next to the door.

**Warning Infected Inside. Do Not Open.**

"Oh, are you fucking kidding me?" Ellie snapped. "Thanks for the warning on the other side, guys."

"Maybe they never thought anyone would come the way we did," Linda said.

"You got a point there," Ellie said.

"So where's this tower?" Joel said.

"We're close," Henry said.

It is only now that Linda takes notice of the identification sign next to that door and gasps with shock as her emotions overwhelm her, startling the others.

"Linda, what's wrong?" Joel asked.

But Linda runs down that mossy trail.

"Linda, they're not going to burst out of there!" Ellie called after her.

Linda continues running, not bothering to answer them as she feels like a little girl waking up to discover that it is Christmas Day. She reaches the end where there is an open triangular gate made of two pipes, the type only meant to keep motor vehicles out. There is a sign alongside it and she rounds it to read it intently.

**Waverly Township**

Bittersweet feelings overwhelm Linda, causing her to cry and fall to her knees. She takes notice of the others having reached her and read the sign as well.

"Is this where you lived?" Joel asked.

"Yes," Linda answered hoarsely while nodding.

"Fuck! What're the odds that we'd end up being where Linda lived?!" Ellie exclaimed.

"Now Linda, you know they won't be here," Joel admonished gently.

"I-I know that," Linda sighed with frustration, then looks back up at him with a pained expression. "I-It's just that I wanna see if anything's left of my home."

"We're also close to our destination," Henry said as he points to the radio tower in the distance.

"Where is your home exactly?" Ellie asked.

"Actually," Linda mused then pauses while rising as she stares at that tower, something that wasn't there before, "it's in that direction."

"Then maybe we can stop by your home along the way," Henry suggested.

"Yes, I appreciate that," Linda said, feeling glad.

"Then let's get going," Joel said. "Linda, you lead the way."


	19. Chapter 18

Everywhere they look, they see nothing but twenty years of neglect. The houses are either two or three stories high. There are those with their windows and doors boarded up, and those not at all as some still have their doors open or missing them altogether. Cars, trucks, and vans are still parked where their owners had left them. There is even luggage to be found. Despite Linda's eagerness to get to her own home, they check out the interiors of those other homes. Their contents vary. Computers, televisions, radios, and other electronic things are untouched, as are the paintings and pictures. Books can still be found as they are scattered about the floors of their respective rooms. There are some tools that seem to have gone missing, along with whatever household items as well. Concerning the bare necessities, most of the clothes are gone and there is even less food or anything remotely edible to be found. Between the inside and outside, it all points to the inhabitants being in a hurry to leave.

"I was just five when the cordyceps hit," Henry said. "My memory's pretty hazy, but I remember living in a neighborhood just like this."

"What do you remember?" Ellie asked.

"Ahh . . . barbecues. Parents, they would throw these crazy big barbecues and invite a ton of people. You know. I remember the smell more than anything. Weird."

"That's because smell is our strongest memory," Linda said. "And since you mentioned barbecues, my family used to have them too. But they were much smaller."

Another thing about the neighborhood Linda especially takes notice of are the warnings spray-painted on the sides and roofs of houses.

"Will shoot on sight," Sam read on one house. "Lots of friendly people lived here."

"First few months after the outbreak, they had a lot of looting," Henry said. "Everyone got paranoid. You remember any of that, Joel, Linda?"

"Everyone barricaded themselves in their homes. Then supplies started running low. That's when you saw what people are really capable of."

"I sure hope my family got away before it got that bad," Linda said apprehensively.

"Whoa, whoa, wait. You sayin' you weren't around here that time, Linda?" Henry asked.

"No, I wasn't . . . I was actually on a sailing ship out at sea when this fungus struck, then I got stuck on a deserted island."

"What?!" Henry and Sam exclaimed simultaneously.

"Let's keep movin'," Joel said.

As they are walking down the street, they hear dogs barking. They round a corner and see two dogs playing up ahead.

"Oh. Doggies," Ellie said fondly.

"You're gonna want to stay away from those," Joel said. "It's not like it is in the zone. These are wild."

"That's the first time I've seen dogs," Linda noted.

"They either died because they couldn't survive in the wild or they became food, even to the infected," Joel answered.

"That reminds me, where are all the cats?" Linda asked. "I've yet to see one."

"They're around, but mostly in the zones though," Joel replied.

The five come upon a brightly colored serving truck.

"What is this?" Ellie asked as she walks up to the truck in question.

"Oh, this is an ice cream truck," Sam answered.

"An ice cream truck?"

"Yeah. Henry told me about these. They'd sell ice cream out of the truck."

"What? No way. Joel?"

"It's true. This thing would drive around and play real loud creepy music and kids would come runnin' out to buy ice cream."

"You're totally fucking with me."

"Umm. Seriously."

"Man, you lived in a strange time."

"Told you so," Sam said.

"You mean you never had ice cream before, Ellie?" Linda said.

"Oh, I've had ice cream. They'd serve it at the orphanage I was staying at on special occasions. But it was never sold from a truck."

Joel looks over at the house directly across from them and notes a workbench. He goes over and goes to work on enhancing his weapons. After he finishes, they continue their trek down the street. The dogs stop their roughhousing to take notice of the approaching humans and run away. The five walk around the bend to where the dogs ran, only to be stopped by chunks of land blocking their way. It is at that dead end that they notice a symbol painted on a concrete wall alongside them that everyone, save Linda, knows.

"Fireflies were here," Henry said.

"So that's their symbol then," Linda said.

"Yeah, by the looks of it," Joel replied.

"How're we gonna find them?" Henry asked.

"I know a guy," Joel answered. "My brother actually. He was a Firefly. Last I heard he was in Wyoming. We get there, we find him. We find the Fireflies. Whaddya say, you in?"

"Sounds like a good plan, man," Henry answered.

"Ah, okay. You guys are killing me with your downer talk," Ellie said. "It's joke book time." And takes out her joke book.

"What is that?" Sam asked.

"Just bare with me," Ellie said as she looks through her book. "You want to hear a joke about pizza? Never mind, it was too cheesy."

"I don't get it," Sam said.

"Yeah, me neither," Ellie said. "What did the green grape say to the purple grape? Breathe, you idiot!"

"That's so stupid," Sam chuckled. "Alright, I got a joke for you."

"Let's hear it?" Ellie asked.

"Why can't you nose be twelve inches long?"

"I don't know. Why?" Ellie asked.

"Because then it would be a foot," Sam answered.

"That's so dumb. I love it," Ellie said.

"Joking aside," Joel said dryly. "We have to find a way around that road block . . . Linda?"

She looks up at the house right next to them.

"Let's try that way," she said as she pointed at the house in front of them. "I have a feeling about that house."

They go up to it and enter. In the living room they encounter a dart board on the wall, along with some darts.

"Darts," Ellie said.

"Right," Sam answered.

"Hey, Sam," Henry said. "Be careful."

"Yeah . . . okay," then turns to Ellie. "Alright. I'll go first."

Linda watches them play darts as each take turns throwing a dart into that board, but missing the bull's eye.

"No, no, you clearly got destroyed," Sam pointed out.

"How did I clearly get destroyed?" Ellie admonished. "That's practically a tie."

The kids leave. Joel walks over to pick up a dart and throws it, but misses the board by roughly a foot.

"There'll come a day where kids can just be kids again," Henry said.

"Let's go," Joel said.

They go out the back of the house and into the backyard. Linda sees another section of the neighborhood. She feels that she should know this part of the neighborhood, but with all of the changes wrought here, she is no longer so certain.

"The wooden part of the stairs is gone," Ellie said.

Linda stares at the concrete staircase. With the wooden base gone, those stairs only go down halfway as if the rest had vanished into thin air, leaving the end level with the retainer wall. Her memories come flooding back as her heart rate increases and she suddenly goes weak in the knees.

"Linda, what's wrong?" Sam asked.

"My house is right over-" As she looks while pointing. "No . . . !No, no, no!"

Where she had pointed to, two houses had once stood, but have since burned down. She now understands why she didn't recognize her part of the neighborhood at first. Tears trickle down her cheeks from the profound sense of loss that overwhelms her and she runs down those stairs and jumps down.

"Hey, Linda, wait-" Joel called.

Gunshot fills the air and Linda hears the sound of glass crashing as the bullet had gone through the windshield of the ruined car.

"Get down!" Joel clamored as he grabs her from behind and shoves her down behind that car.

"Fuckin' sniper," Henry growled from alongside. Ellie and Sam had joined him. "Did you see where it came from?"

"Somewhere down the street," Joel answered. "Alright now . . . Y'all stay here."

"No," Ellie gasped.

"Before you start - I need you guys to keep him busy. I'm gonna go around and see if I can't get the angle on him."

"Okay," Ellie agreed. "Hey. Be careful."

Joel dashes out from behind the car and dives into a roll just as gunshot fills the air and the sound of a bullet whizzes by to ricochet off the asphalt and into that retainer wall.

"Where do you think you're going?" The sniper bellowed tauntingly from down the street.

Linda listens intently to the shots being fired. She dares not to raise her head.

"You think Joel's gonna be alright?" Sam asked.

"Don't know," Ellie said. "Let's hope that sniper's a terrible shot."

More shots ring out, only this time it is nowhere near them. All that time, the sniper keeps up with his taunts. For a moment, there is no gunfire.

"You don't suppose-" Linda gasped fretfully.

"No," Henry interjected. "Or else we'd hear that sniper gloating."

Sure enough more gunshots are raised from that sniper, along with his voice. The suspense is intense and Linda feels the urge to look over, but is fearful that the sniper may see her. Carefully, she peeks around the edge of the car and down the street toward that house. She knew the people who owned that house. They were nice people. She hopes that they got out safely.

"I don't see Joel," Linda said.

"I do," Ellie said as she is looking around the other side.

Linda joins her and sees Joel sneaking up to a house out of the sniper's sight, and ultimately her sight. There is silence for a time.

"He's in that burned out house!" The sniper bellowed.

That comment makes Linda idly wonder if Joel had entered what had been her parent's house, or possibly her next door neighbor's. Her home was the nearest one to that house where the sniper is stationed. More shots and more taunts from the sniper ring out. Linda is left wondering if Joel will be successful.

"Hey, listen," Henry said.

"What, I don't hear anything?" Ellie said.

"He hasn't fired a shot yet," Linda said.

"So Joel did it then," Sam sighed.

"Not necessarily," Linda continued. "It could also mean that sniper is fighting Joel."

"Watch out!" Ellie shouted as she shoots upward behind them. Linda looks to see a hunter tumbling down from where they came and land at the bottom horizontally.

"Get 'em!" A hunter shouted from nearby as he runs out with a rifle to take aim.

"Oh, shit!" Henry shouted as he is quick with his gun and shoots the hunter hitting him in the chest.

"They're coming from behind us! Ellie shouted as she gets up.

"Run! Over to that car!" Linda stated as she points to one up the street.

"But we'll be exposed to the sniper!" Sam said.

"No choice," Linda admonished.

The four of them sprint to that other car, leaving them dangerously exposed. Hunters come running from seemingly everywhere. Shots are fired at them, but miss. Henry and Sam take refuge behind one car, while Linda and Ellie take refuge behind another just next to them. Another shot is fired, this time from that house where the sniper is.

"Oh no, it's the sniper!" Linda wailed.

Another hunter sticks his head up from behind a woodpile and gets his head thrown backward as a stream of blood goes flying back. Another hunter over to their left falls over after a bloody hole appears in the side of his chest. Another shot is quick to follow and another hunter drops to their right with a hole in the side of his chest as well. It then finally dawns on them.

"It's Joel! He did it!" Ellie exclaimed.

"Don't celebrate just yet!" Linda shouted. "We gotta take those other devils down!"

With Joel's help, they shoot the rest of the hunters coming their way as they are getting confused by the sniping at them.

"I think we're winning!" Henry shouted.

The dreaded sound and sight that they thought they had escaped from back in Pittsburgh comes roaring down the street and stops alongside the car where Joel had been hiding with the other four. It fires off its machine gun at Henry and Sam, who scurry away and join Linda and Ellie behind the other car.

"It's those damn tourists from the city!" A voice shouted from over the din of the Humvee's engine and machine gun. "Thought you could get away from us? Huh? We're back, motherfucker!"

Fifty caliber bullets continue raking over where the four are hiding.

"I think they're coming closer!" Linda screamed.

The Humvee stops firing its machine gun and all they can hear is the ever increasing pitch of its engine.

"Oh God!" Linda screamed as she and the others scurry back from a sudden burst of fire upon the car where they are hiding behind.

Now that they are exposed, they can clearly see the Humvee as it continues coming ever closer to them. Its hatch is open. They scurry behind another car nearby and intently watch that Humvee.

"I don't think there's anymore hunters around!" Ellie noted loudly.

"Now all we have to worry about is that!" Henry yelled back.

A hunter suddenly pops up from out of the top and hurls another Molotov their way and ducks back down faster than any of them could react. The four do react, however, when that Molotov crashes upon their new hiding spot to spread more liquid flames. Once again, the seconds stretch out.

"Gonna light you up!" The hunter shouted gleefully as he pops back up once again with another Molotov held high. Linda can now see the demonic glee on his face.

In a blink his smile turns to agony as he wretches back and quickly falls back inside, along with that Molotov as it falls out of his hand.

In another blink, flames shoot up through that opening and the Humvee suddenly races forward. As if appearing out of nowhere, there is now a man engulfed in flames and screaming in agony as he runs around waving his arms. The Humvee crashes into the porch of a nearby house. Flames continue shooting up through the top and the Humvee finally goes silent, as does the flaming man as he falls to the asphalt and stops moving.

For a moment, they are silent, then voice their relief. All except Linda whose attention is entirely upon the charred remains of what was once her home for the first eighteen years of her life. She sighs despondently and wonders if there is anything still salvageable in there. Only to change her mind over the thought of finding skeletons instead.

Gunfire brings her attention back and she ends up seeing three runners charging from the house where that Humvee had crashed. Henry downs one, but the other tackles him, as does the other with Sam. Linda takes aim at the runner on Henry, only to watch the runner get a bloodied hole in its side, courtesy of Ellie. So Linda runs up to the other atop Henry and shoots it through the head.

"Sam, are you okay?" Henry exclaimed as he gets up.

"Yeah. Yeah. I'm fine."

It is then that they hear the sound of infected and look to see runners and clickers charging toward them from up the street. Shots are fired from the sniper's post, dropping them.

"C'mon, c'mon," Ellie said as she starts running.

"Let's move," Henry added as he pulls Sam along.

The four run toward the house where Joel. All the while those screams and cries increase in number behind them. Once inside, they slam the door shut and are able to lock it. The infected crash up against the house, banging and clawing on the door and at the boarded windows as their arms snake in through. They turn to see Joel come running down the stairs.

"You're okay," Ellie sighed.

"Still here," Joel said. "Anybody hurt?"

"Uh-uh," Henry answered.

"No. We're good," Sam replied.

"Same here," Linda said.

"Alright. I think it's time we quit this place," he continued. "C'mon."

Joel leads them out the back door, across the lawn, and through a loose board in a fence as the radio tower looms large before them.


	20. Chapter 19

The five unwind in the hideout and have a meal of beans that Henry had heated up on a portable propane stove as its blue flame continues to burn and heat up a cover pot upon it. Sam on the other hand had excused himself.

"Shut the hell up," Henry chuckled with a wide grin while lounging back.

"Dead serious," Linda said, then eats a spoonful of beans out of her can. "The next thing I knew, I'm in the back of their truck and here I am."

Henry chuckles again as he sits up.

"You had quite the adventure in meeting up with them," he said. "But you spent all that time on that island and you never even knew about this outbreak?"

"None."

"So what was it like? I mean, when you finally got here and discovered what had happened."

"It was shocking," Linda answered as she looks into her can, then puts it down. "It was really shocking."

"Shocking?" Henry said with subtle disbelief. "C-Can you believe this woman?" As he regards Ellie and Joel momentarily. "C'mon, gimme details. Describe it."

"Henry, I don't know what to tell you," Linda chided gently. "You were a just little boy when mine and Joel's world came to an end. You can't even begin to understand what I went through and what I'm still going through. The same goes for Ellie and Sam, seeing as how they were born six years afterwards." She then looks at Joel. "Come to think of it, I don't think Joel could understand for that matter."

"Why would you say that?" Joel asked wryly.

"Because you met this catastrophe with eyes wide open and bore witness to the past twenty years of life," Linda answered. "Me, I might as well have been asleep during that time and only just woke up to the whole thing."

"Yeah, I get it now," Joel said as he nods in agreement. "I lived through the chaos of when there were still lots of people around fleein' the cities and towns to get away from the fungus. It seemed as if every road, down to wood roads, had caravans of survivors. When their food and gas ran out that's when things went from bad to worse. Today, most of where you go, it's quiet . . . You on the other hand, you're almost like Rip van Winkle."

"Rip van Winkle?" Henry asked wryly.

"He's a character from a story I read," Ellie answered. "He falls asleep after partying with some guys and wakes up to discover that he had slept for twenty years."

"That's some sleep," Henry chuckled as he lies back. "I too have some memories of the outbreak. What I most remember were my parents panicking. I can remember my father grabbing me and shoving me into their car. I didn't know what was going on, but I remember feelin' scared 'cause I saw they were scared. I think I asked mom what was going on, but she just kept assurin' me that everything was okay. But I knew the difference. I finally got upset with them and demanded to know what was going on. So they told me about the cordyceps, only they told it to me as a sickness that makes people run around and bite other people. And if I were to get bitten, I'll end up wantin' to do the same things until somebody shot me."

"I'll go check on Sam," Ellie said as she rises.

She leaves the room, leaving the three adults alone. There is a moment of silence between them as the mood suddenly turns heavy.

"I don't think anyone from our group is gonna show up," Henry finally said.

"Yeah," Joel agreed.

"Worst part about it all," Henry continued, "explaining it to Sam."

"I'm sure he can handle it," Linda said softly.

"I just wish that I could protect him." He then starts chuckling wryly. "Oh, damn . . . Damn . . . ! I sounded just like my parents back during the outbreak . . . Trying to assure me that nothing was wrong."

"But at least you're not pretending that nothing's wrong," Linda said.

"You got a point there."

The next morning, Linda, Joel, and Henry are up and preparing to move on.

"Shouldn't we wake them?" Linda asked.

"Nah, let her sleep in," Joel said.

"Sam too," Henry agreed as he is turning on the stove.

It is as Henry is preparing breakfast, spaghetti and meatballs this time, that Ellie finally wakes up.

"Damn. That smells good," she yawned.

"Good morning," Joel said.

"Hey there, Ellie," Linda said.

"Where's Sam?" Ellie asked.

"I let him sleep in for once," Henry answered as he continues stirring the pot. "Well if you want him to join us, you can go wake his ass up."

Ellie gets up and goes to do so.

"So what's the-" Linda said, only to be cut short by Ellie screaming Sam's name.

"What the hell?" Henry gasped.

The door bursts open and Ellie falls down with Sam on top of her. He is snarling and growling as he tries to claw and bite her.

"Shit! He's turnin'!" Joel shouted as he lunges for his backpack. He pulls out one of his guns.

Linda jumps at the sound of gunfire as her head whips around to see Henry pointing a gun at Joel.

"That's my fucking brother!" His voice hoarse and desperate.

Joel hesitates. "Screw it!" He snarled as he lunges for his gun.

Linda watches Henry fire off another shot, only this time at Sam, who stops attacking Ellie and pushes him off to get up and back away. Sam makes a death rattle.

"Ellie?" Joel gasped as he clasps her shoulders. "Ellie, are you alright?"

"Uh-huh," she said, then looks back at Sam. "Oh my God."

"Sam?" Henry muttered as his face twists with grief. "Sam."

Linda scurries over and begins looking Sam over. His eyes are yellowish, buggy, and askew, and a few growths graces his face. She starts looking him over for bite marks.

"Guys! Look!" As she points to the raw deep scratch on the shin of his left leg.

"That's from yesterday," Ellie said.

"Henry," Joel called out to him as he rises. "Ellie, Linda, stay there. Henry?"

"Henry, what have you done?" Henry sobbed to himself.

Linda stands and feels her empathy working in overdrive.

Joel slowly starts walking toward Henry. "I'm gonna get that gun from you, okay," he said carefully.

Henry points the gun at him, causing Linda to gasp with shock.

"Whoa. Okay, okay, easy," Joel exclaimed as he backs down.

"It's your fault," Henry sobbed.

"This is nobody's fault, Henry," Joel stated.

"It's all your fault!" Henry wailed as he continues pointing his gun at Joel.

"Henry," Joel said. "Henry, no."

Henry quickly turns the gun to his own head and pulls the trigger. The loud crack of gunfire fills the room, along with the acrid smell.

Linda sobs while clasping her hands over her mouth as her eyes go wide with shock. She falls to her knees and starts weeping with tears streaming down her cheeks. She stares at Henry now lying on the floor, watching as his blood flows out of the side of his head to create another pool like the one Sam is creating. Her mind stretches on her once again, almost as if everything is taking on a fake quality once more. She vaguely hears Ellie weeping.

Joel walks up to the now dead Henry, bends over and picks up the gun, then straights. He sighs long and loud.

"I've seen this happen," he finally said with a grim tone. "Infected strangers were one thing, but infected loved ones were something else entirely . . . A lot of people couldn't take the guilt of being forced to kill a loved one."

He looks around at them as if in contemplation.

"Linda," he finally said to her. "You coming with us to Jackson City, Wyoming? That's where my brother is with his community. I think he'll take you in."

Linda stands as she wipes her tears away. She sniffs and rubs her nose, then sighs. She opens her mouth as she struggles with what to say, given that her emotions are still seething.

"Y-Yes. Yes, I will," she answered softly.

"We have work to do," Joel next said.

And so it goes. They dig a grave for Henry and Sam and bury them side-by-side. Once that is done, they strike out for Wyoming.

It proves to be a long journey. They are careful not to go through cities and towns this time and stick to the villages and hamlets. Even the smallest communities have become ghost towns. They find another vehicle they could use, a car in a house, and they are on their way once again.

They decide to let Linda in on Ellie's special gift.

"Is that why you're taking her to see those Fireflies?!" Linda had exclaimed with awe.

"Yes, so they can extract whatever it is that makes her immune and try to make a cure," Joel said.

"It's incredible to think that there's somebody who is actually immune to this monstrous disease, and we personally know them! Do you think there are any more people like Ellie out there?"

"Don't know, but it might be possible," Joel answered.

"Then let's hope that there are a lot more like Ellie out there."

When they enter Wyoming, the car finally gives up. Those years of neglect had been too much. They resume their walking. Camping out in buildings that are still intact and uninfected. Finding ammunition. And scrounging for food. Part of it being hunting as squirrels are bagged. Bugs, they would not try, save for Linda.

They finally reach their destination as they stand before a dirt road going along the side of a mountain with a river running past them down below. There is a sign nearby that states, Jackson County Snake River Trail.

Linda, with her hair now slightly longer, stares at that sign in contemplation that this may be the end of her journey. Since it is later in the year, it is cooler now and she is wearing a blue jacket that she had found in a house.

"Jackson County," Ellie read, snapping her out of her musing. "Means we're close to Jackson City, right?"

"Shouldn't be more than a few miles," Joel said.

"You ready to see your dear, old brother?" Ellie asked.

"I'm just ready to get there," Joel replied.

"You nervous?" Linda asked.

"I don't know what I'm feeling," Joel said.

They walk up a steep narrow dirt road. Up ahead is an abandoned police wagon that had smashed into a tree. Joel notices something next to the tree and picks it up. It is a large handgun, a revolver.

"What kind of gun is that?" Linda asked.

"It's a Taurus Raging Bull,"Joel answered as he looks it over. "Given it's size, I think I better use it."

They continue forward to find that the road had washed out.

"So much for this road," Ellie said

"We just follow the river," Joel said as he looks down over the side at it. "It'll lead us straight to Tommy's. C'mon."

They go back the way they came from and go down the embankment to follow the river. All the while they converse.

"What happened between you two?" Ellie asked.

"What do you mean?" Joel asked.

"You and Tommy," Ellie began. "You're not together, so clearly something went down."

"We just had a bit of a disagreement, that's all."

"Oh here we go," Ellie said in a sarcastic tone. "So what was it about?"

"Tommy saw the world one way, I saw it the other."

"And that's why he joined the Fireflies?" Linda asked.

"Yeah, Ellie's friend Marlene promised him hope. She's the leader of the Fireflies. That kept him busy for awhile, but just like Tommy, he eventually quit that too."

"So he's a free spirit I take it," Linda said.

"Yeah, you could say that."

"How was it," Ellie said, "the last time you saw him."

"I believe his last words were, I don't ever want to see your god damned face again."

"Clearly a falling out between you two," Linda said dryly.

"That obvious, huh," Joel quipped.

"But he's gonna help us?" Ellie added.

"I suppose we're gonna find out."

"I wonder if that will affect his decision to take me in," Linda said.

"Tommy's not that petty, Linda. So I don't think you need to worry about that," Joel said.

"Well, with or without his help, we'll get there," Ellie said.

"Let's just keep going," Joel said.

They round the river bend and come upon something that Ellie is not familiar with.

"Whoa . . . what's that?" Ellie asked.

"That right there is a hydroelectric power plant," Joel answered.

"A hydra who?"

"It uh . . . uses the river's movement and turns it into electricity," Joel explained.

"How's it do that?" Ellie pressed.

"Look, I know what it is," Joel said. "I don't know how it does it."

"It does it by allowing the water to rush over the turbines to turn," Linda replied, remembering her studies back in high school. "Those turbines are connected to a massive alternator."

"Oh, I get it now," Ellie said with a eureka tone. "It's just like in a car with its battery. As the car moves, it causes the alternator to turn and charge up the battery."

"That's right," Linda said. "Only there's no battery in a hydroelectric station to charge up."

They walk up a flight of rusting stairs. The presence of barb wire wrapped around the railings shows that this place is frequently visited. They go up to the mouth of the river where it rushes through the grates.

"All right," Ellie said, "how are we getting across?"

Joel looks at a steel turn wheel next to him and takes hold of it, then turns it. He has to put effort into it, but it moves and first half of the grate rises to place the solid white part facing upward. Linda sees what he is trying to do now.

"Well, that gets us halfway," Ellie said. "If we get the other one up, we'll make it across."

"I'll find something, just hang tight," Joel said.

He next climbs over a solid gate alongside him and walks up to a missing section of the railing. He crouches down as he stares intently.

"Do you see something down there?" Linda called out to him.

"I think I see a truck container down there. More importantly, I think I see another one of those pallets that I can ferry Ellie across on."

"How will you get it out?"

"I think . . . I think I may need to dive down there."

"With your clothes on again?!" Linda clamored with a wry expression.

"Well, it's not like I can just undress in front of you ladies."

Linda sudden gets an idea that causes her to feel lightheaded. She goes over to where Joel is and removes her backpack, then her jacket. She starts taking off her shoes.

"Wh-What are you doing?" Joel said.

"I'm going down there," Linda said as she removes first one shoe.

"You?!"

"Could you please go back up there and look the other way," Linda stated as she is busy with the other shoe.

"But-"

"Joel, please," Linda demanded. Already she feels nervous about getting naked. Back on that island she had been alone all that time.

Joel growls a sigh as he starts to turn.

"First sign of trouble and I'll be jumpin' in after you," he said as he pointed at her.

He then turns and walks back up to where he opened the grating and stares out over the river as it flows away. Ellie on the other hand casually watches Linda undress.

"Whoa, Linda. You're so full of freckles," she mused. "And I thought I had freckles."

"This is from spending years out in the sun naked," Linda said as she takes off her shirt.

Once she is finally stark naked, Linda searches through her backpack and pulls out a towel to set down. Next, she slips into the water feet first and gasps with shock while holding onto the edge.

"Holy shit, that's cold!"

Goose bumps are raised over every square inch of her skin. Linda dunks momentarily to get used to the water and also to get a visual on where she needs to go. The water feels like pin needles.

She resurfaces, takes a deep breath, holds it, and dives straight down.


	21. Chapter 20

Linda swims down toward what was thought to be a wrecked transport truck container, but turns out to be a metal shed or cabin. Either way, it is not far underwater as the topmost part is only several feet beneath the surface. She wonders if she should get inside and push it out or remain outside and pull it out.

She decides that pushing it out may be easier and enters. She clasps hold of that pallet and starts fiddling with it. The cold of the water is affecting her as her body produces more heat to compensate for the heat being lost to the surrounding water, causing her oxygen reserves to be used up more quickly.

Linda tilts the pallet and it comes free, then shoves it out and it floats up. And not a moment too soon as her lungs start burning and the urge to inhale becomes stronger. She grabs hold of the edge of that opening and pulls herself out to resurface more quickly.

Upon resurfacing, she gasps deeply, getting a lung full of fresh air and feeling that overwhelming relief.

"That was . . . intense," Linda gasped, then refocuses her attention and grabs the pallet. "All right, Ellie. I need you to-".

"I know," she said wearily from where Linda had entered the water, "step on the fucking pallet."

Linda pushes the pallet over to Ellie, who then gets on. Linda carefully ferries her across over to the other side directly from where Joel had turned that valve to lift that grate. Although Linda is a more skilled swimmer than Joel, she is not as strong and having to push a pallet with a person on it turns out to be slower. And the longer she remains in this cold water, the weaker she will get.

She finally gets Ellie over to that side to where the girl can now climb up.

"Go on. Give it a shot," Joel said this time.

Leaving the pallet behind, Linda is able to swim back more quickly. She can hear the creaking and scraping of the other grate now rising. She manages to get out and starts shivering violently. A sure sign that any longer in that water, she would have suffered hypothermia.

"Just give me a moment and then I'll start drying off," Linda called out.

She rests for a moment to regain some of her strength. She next picks up her towel and begins drying off. With only a light shower falling, she will not stay wet. After drying off as much as she could, she puts on her underwear, then her shirt and jeans.

"Okay," Linda called out, and she sees Joel turn around.

"Good work, Linda," he complemented. "Saved me the trouble of gettin' wet, and sparin' both of you the sight of me naked."

Linda giggles at that remark.

Joel crosses over both grates.

"Hey, be careful crossing that thing," Ellie said.

"I will," Joel answered.

Linda watches as she finishes putting the rest of her stuff on.

"Teamwork," Ellie said as she hold up her hand to high five Joel.

Linda finishes putting the rest of her stuff on and goes over to cross next. She is about to do so when she does a double take at the sight of something that had caught her attention directly across the river. It is a teddy bear just sitting there.

She starts crossing over.

"You be careful too, Linda," Ellie said.

"Gotcha," Linda answered while carefully treading across, and makes it across without incident.

"Teamwork," Ellie repeated with Linda and high fived her too.

"There's something over there," Linda said as she points to what she had seen. "Let's go have a look."

They go down the ramp and off through a missing part of the railing onto grassy ground to investigate.

"Someone had a campfire here," Linda said as she looks over the remains of the fireplace. "And they had it in style too." As she looks over at an abandoned desk with pots and pans upon it.

They climb over a mossy log and come upon the teddy bear. It is tied to a makeshift wooden cross that is stuck into a small mound of dirt. Linda gasps as her throat tightens.

"That's too small of a grave," Joel said dourly.

"I forgot to leave that stupid robot on his grave," Ellie fumed as she takes out that Transmuter toy she gave Sam. "What should I do with it?"

"Ellie," Joel said.

"What? I want to talk about it," Ellie pleaded.

"No," Joel said firmly.

"Why not?"

"How many times do we need to go over this?" Joel admonished. "Things happen . . . and we move on."

"It's just-"

"That's enough." As he holds his hand up.

Ellie sighs. "You're right. I'm sorry."

"Let's get to Tommy's."

They walk away. Linda had been listening silently. She thought about raising her objections, but she did see the point in what he said. This world now has another way to die, and it has become pervasive.

More and more, Linda is starting to accept the fact that her family was wiped out by this plague.

They walk down the metal bridge and up two flights of stairs to finally reach the ground. They are alongside a concrete wall with coils of barb wire on top of it.

"Aughh, I'm so hungry," Ellie fumed at one point.

"I know, I am too," Joel said.

"So am I," Linda admitted because she had been feeling hunger pangs for awhile.

"All right, next squirrel I see," Ellie said. "I'm totally shooting it."

"Let's get past this place, then we can scrounge up some food," Joel said.

"We could scrounge up some bugs," Linda quipped feeling the need to lighten the mood.

"Ew! No way! I'm not that hungry!" Ellie squealed.

"You never know when your next meal will come, Ellie," Linda said dourly. "I learned that the hard way."

"Oh yeah. That island you were stuck on."

They come upon a tree that had fallen over and duck underneath it to continue on. They come upon a rusting bulldozer with trees that have grown up around it. Just beyond that is a more open area where there is a rusty chain linked fence with an abandoned military jeep that looks to have attempted to smash through its closed gate, only to get stuck. Alongside that jeep is a wrecked office.

Behind them are a set of closed gates made of corrugated steel. Upon the walls and the gates are FEDRA and military signs that show this to be a restricted area.

"Uh . . . should we head in?" Ellie asked.

"Ah, ain't no way around. Gonna have to cut through the plant," Joel said.

Joel approaches the gates, takes hold of one of its handles, and tugs on it. Linda is quick to look to where she hears clicking and ends up seeing two men atop the wall to the left of the gates with rifles pointing down at them. She gasps and her heart beats harder as she wonders if they will be shot dead. Both are White, with one wearing a blue cap and the other bare-headed to reveal dark blond hair parted in the middle.

"Don't even think about reaching for your weapon. Tell the girl to drop hers. Now."

As Linda had gasped from the quick commanding voice of a woman who is atop the wall to the right of the gates, and also pointing a rifle down at them. She is also White, with short lighter blond hair that is slicked back. Linda glances at Ellie to see that she had drawn her gun before returning her attention to that woman.

_Why does that woman look so familiar?_ Linda wondered.

"Ellie, do as the lady says," Joel said, causing Ellie to raise her hands.

"Please tell me you're lost," the woman asked while still pointing her gun down at them.

"We didn't know the place was occupied. We're just trying to make our way through," Joel explained.

"Through to where?" The woman pressed.

_Who are you?_ Linda wondered.

"They're alright," a man with a Texan drawl called from behind those doors, which then start clinking.

"What, you know these people?" The woman looks away to acknowledge him.

"I know him," the man said.

The doors open to reveal the man with the dark blond hair. "He's my goddamn brother."

"Tommy," Joel said.

"Holy shit," Tommy said as he emerges and hugs him.

"How you doin', baby brother?" Joel said as he returns the hug.

"Goddamn . . . Let me look at you." Tommy lets go and steps back. "You got fucking old."

"Easy - it's gonna happen to you too," Joel said.

"This is Maria," Tommy introduced the woman who had walked up to stand beside him. "Be nice to her, she sorta runs things around here."

"Ma'am. Thanks for not blowing my head off," Joel said.

"Would've been embarrassing," Maria quipped, "considering you're my brother-in-law."

"We all gotta get wrangled up at some point," Tommy said to Joel.

"Ellie right?" Maria said to her, then turns to Linda. "And who are-is something wrong?"

Linda is standing there with her eyes and mouth wide with shock. She is shivering and gasping intently. Her mind is stretching once again, this time almost to its breaking point and everything truly seems like a dream for this moment.

"Linda, what's wrong?" Joel asked with concern.

"Linda?" Maria sneered at Joel.

"Yeah, that's her name. Why?"

"Well, it's just that she's got the same name and hair color as my sister who drown-"

"I didn't drown!" Linda finally wailed so loudly that everyone around her jumps with shock. "Maria, I didn't drown! It's really me, your big sister Linda!"

Maria screams as she drops her gun, startling Tommy, Joel, and Ellie, then next clasps her own head and falls upon her buttocks. More people come running to see what is going on.

"N-No way!" Maria sobbed as she covers her mouth and continues looking upward with an intense look of shock. "I-It can't be! I-It's impossible!"

"No fucking way!" Tommy grated with a look of awe.

"They're sisters?" Joel said, who for once is in awe.

Maria gets back up and the two long lost sisters throw themselves at each other with a wail, their bodies crash together. They hug fiercely as they cry into each other.

Joel, Ellie, and Tommy continue gawking at the scene.

"Are you fuckin' kidding me?! They're sisters?!" Ellie exclaimed with awe. "Linda must have a second rabbit's foot shoved up her ass!"

"Maria told me about her!" Tommy clamored with surprise. "About how she drowned after being washed off a sailing ship during a storm right before the outbreak . . . ! But she was actually alive all this time?!"

Linda continues to hold her younger sister by a few years close.

"Is it really you?!" Maria sobbed into her ear.

"I could ask the same of you! But it's really me, Maria! It's really me!"

They break their embrace and stare into each other's now reddened eyes. Linda feels spent.

"Look at you," Linda sobbed wearily yet happily as she gently clasps Maria's face with both hands. "You've grown into such a beautiful woman. I almost didn't recognize you. But I knew that you looked familiar."

"You've . . . changed yourself, Linda," Maria sobbed wearily, managing a chuckle. "And I too almost didn't recognize you, yet I knew that you looked familiar."

Maria then clasps Linda's arms fiercely. "Where were you all this time?!" As she shakes her by the shoulders.

"On a deserted island," Linda answered, then takes a big sigh and starts collecting her thoughts. "When I regained consciousness, I was floating around in the ocean, thanks to my life preserver. Then I saw an island in the distance and managed to swim to it. I wasn't the first person there though, because it had an abandoned building. Anyway, up until June the twenty-fourth of this year, I lived alone on that island. And I would've died there from old age if not for a motorboat that just happened to be drifting by, which also happened to have enough fuel and water for me to reach America, where I landed near Virginia Beach. And yes, I know it sounds pretty convenient, but it took almost twenty years for that to come to pass."

Maria chuckled as she smiles sadly. "To think that all this time you were actually stuck somewhere . . . Let's go inside. You hungry?"

"I am," Ellie said.

They enter the walled compound.

"False alarm. They're friendlies," Maria announced. "And this one's my sister, back from the dead." As a crack enters her tone, then recollects herself. "We've been dealing with raids. Lots of bandits in this area."

"It's been quiet for a few days," Tommy said.

"What the hell are you doing here? I thought I'd find you in Jackson," Joel said.

"Been trying to bring the plant back to life," Tommy said.

"We had it working before," Maria added, "but one of the turbines went south."

"We have electricity. Joel," Tommy said, "had. We'll get it running again."

"No way," Ellie said with delight. "You guys have horses." As they approach and man and woman each with a horse.

"We got a whole lot of 'em," Tommy said.

"Hey. Tommy, give me a hand with this," the man tending the horse said.

"Sorry, I'll be right back."

"Can I?" Ellie said to the woman tending the horse.

"Yeah, of course. He likes when you pet his ears. You ever ride one?"

"I actually have," replied Ellie as she pets the horse's ears. Linda also pets the horse down.

"When have you ridden a horse?" Joel asked.

"Winston, this soldier back in the zone. He gave me lessons."

"You know, if you want," Maria said, "we can take him for a ride later."

"That'll be awesome."

"There," Tommy said.

"Hey, thanks Tommy," the man said.

"No sweat . . . All right, let's continue to the tour."

They enter the power plant.

"Maria," a man radioed over her walkie talkie.

"Yeah, go ahead," she radioed back.

"We're up in the control room. Steve's about to start it back up. Do you wanna come check it out?"

"I'd rather eat with Ellie, and Linda," Maria sighed.

"It's my turn anyway. I'll go," Tommy said.

"I'll come with you," Joel said, then turns to Ellie. "Go with Maria and Linda and put some food in you."

"Joel."

"C'mon Ellie," Maria said as she tugs on Ellie's sleeve. "Let's give the boys some space." She lifts her walkie talkie. "I'm sending Tommy over. Stand by."

Linda and Ellie stay with Maria as Joel follows Tommy.

"So, Linda, when did you meet up with Joel and Ellie?" Maria asked intently.

"It was after I had crash-landed in front of them five days after I had left that island."

"You should've seen her!" Ellie jumped in exuberantly. "She was flying one of those single-engine airplanes and crashed right in front of us! She almost hit us!"

"I didn't know you could fly airplanes," Maria said.

"Neither did I. I guess you never know what you're capable of doing. As for that plane? I found it in a hanger in a small airport just outside of Virginia Beach."

"You sound like you had quite the adventure in getting here, sis."

"That's an understatement . . . I . . . also killed too. And it wasn't just infected." As Linda's tone turns heavy.

"That must've been so hard for you," Maria said softly as she rubs Linda's shoulder, then hugs her. "I did my share of killing too, and not just infected."

"How do you deal with it, Maria?"

"You come to the conclusion that it was either you or them."

"That's what Joel told me."

They release.

"What was it like?" Maria asked intently. "Being alone on that island for twenty years?"

"Lonely," Linda answered, then elaborates on her life on that island and being able to leave it behind.

"I can't even begin to imagine what it must've been like for you," Maria sighed empathetically as she touches Linda's face. "And to think that you never even knew what was going on in the rest of the world . . . ! You must've been shocked when you finally reached the mainland!"

"That's like saying a mountain is big," Linda quipped, then clasps Maria's hands. "Listen, there's something I want to ask you." Her tone was serious and her heart races with dreaded anticipation.

"About mom and dad," Maria replied without it being a question.

"Tell me, please," Linda pleaded softly.

Maria takes a deep breath and begins . . .


	22. Chapter 21

_It was a clear morning as Maria, then in her early teens and with longer hair, stood in the living room with a suitcase in hand. Nearby was her father, Aaron, who had auburn hair and hazel eyes, and her mother, Laura, who had light blond hair and blue eyes, of whom Maria takes after in hair and eyes._

_All three are watching tv with an anchorman reporting the news._

_"The Cordyceps fungus continues to claim more victims all across the world as tens of millions more people are becoming infected and savagely attacking those who are not. Here in the States, the military is setting up quarantine zones to-"_

_"Come on, Laura, we gotta go," Aaron said softly yet firmly after shutting off the tv then dropping the remote. He is holding a semi-automatic pistol in the other hand._

_But Laura doesn't move._

_"Laura, come on." And tugged on her sleeve._

_"I can't leave," she snapped as he pulls her arm away. "What if Linda makes it back? She won't know where we've gone."_

_"Linda is dead!" Aaron clamored._

_"And how would you know?!" Laura bawled while whirling on him with an outraged expression. "She may've swam to an island somewhere!"_

_"Alright, fine!" Aaron proclaimed as he momentarily threw his free hand up in exasperation. "She's alive and well on an island somewhere! So now what . . . ?! Look what's going on out there . . . ! More and more people are catching this fungus and turning into homicidal maniacs . . . ! It's all over the planet . . . ! Civilization is crumbling . . . ! So tell me! How's Linda getting home? Who's gonna help her . . . ? Face it, Laura. Whatever island she's stuck on, she'll be there for the rest of her life. And for the better too, since she'll be safe from this."_

_Maria watched as her mother took on a defeated look. She too had felt that Linda was stuck on an island somewhere, but did not believe it as keenly as her mother._

_"Now let's go," Aaron said as he tugged on Laura's arm._

_They hurry out the door. Throughout the rest of the neighborhood people have fled or were in the process of fleeing. Their car was still intact as a lot of vehicles got jacked or vandalized. They finally took notice of the burning house next door. With fire fighting services gone, the house would burn, and possibly their own since the wind was blowing the flames toward their house. A woman stood with her back to the Jones, watching the fire. That woman had lived in that burning house._

_"Silvia! Hey Silvia!" Laura called as she hurried over to her, then reached out and clasped her by the shoulder._

_Silvia turned and slam tackled her mother to the ground while screeching and snarling._

_Maria screamed, knowing that Silvia had become one of them. She watched as her father ran over and shot Silvia through her head, then haul her mother back upon her feet. Next came the feeling of having been punched in the stomach as her mother held up her hand to reveal it all bloodied. An argument broke out between them._

_"You have to leave me behind!" She heard her mother wail. "I'm going to become one of them and attack you all!"_

_Maria felt her grief well up and tears stream down her twisted face and ran to her mother._

_"M-Mom, what are you doing? Come with us!" Maria wept as she grabbed her mother's good hand. "I'm sure they can do something for you at one of those quarantine zones!"_

_"They'll kill me on the spot," her mother said sadly._

_"Maria. Get in the car now," her father commanded._

_A scratchy garbling scream got their attention and Maria looked with rising horror to see a man, now one of the infected as his eyes were bulging, yellowish, and askew as he ran toward them. His shirt and mouth were bloodied, and he was closing the distance quickly._

_"Run!" Laura screamed as she charged at that infected man. Maria watched with horror as her mother then slam tackled him._

_"Mom! No!" Maria screamed._

_"Come on! Get in the car!" Her father suddenly shouted with frightening intensity as she was suddenly grabbed by her hair and forced along. "Don't look! Go! Go! Go! Go!"_

_Aaron kept repeating himself as loudly as he could as Maria allowed herself to be forced along. He kept bellowing as he pushed her inside the backseat, then jumped into the driver's seat. He started the car up, then leaned on the horn. He sped away while honking that horn, not bothering to stop until they were far enough ahead._

_It was all to drown out the screaming they left behind . . _.

Maria breaks down and cries as she buries her hands into her face. Linda hugs her intently and cradles her head. She now wishes that she hadn't heard those details.

"I'm sorry I put you through that!" Linda hushed into her ear. "I'm so sorry . . . ! Oh God, mom!"

"Holy shit," Ellie gasped empathetically from nearby.

They hold each other for a time until Maria calms, then takes a deep breath to quell her grief.

"Dad and I eventually wound up here where we helped set this place up," she continued wearily. "He died of cancer two years ago."

Linda nodded with acceptance.

"Then he was the lucky one," she said softly. Then shakes her head as she smirks with a chuckle. "He died of something that had been a plague to humans since time out of memory. Before all this, that was a terrible thing a person could get."

"Yeah, I understand," Maria grinned sheepishly. "Cancer won't compel you to attack healthy people and turn you into a grotesque monstrosity."

"Did you ever return to Pittsburgh?" Linda next asked.

"No."

"I did."

Linda tells Maria of her misadventure there, up until they left after having buried Henry and Sam. Maria sighed and slowly shakes her head.

"At least I now know what became of our home," Maria finally said.

"I bet Joel never had to deal with stuff like that," Ellie said morosely.

"Now that you've mentioned him," Linda replied, "what do you know about his past life, Ellie?"

"Nothing. He never said anything about his past. Probably because he had nothing to lose."

"He lost more than you two could ever imagined," Maria stated softly.

"Like what?" Ellie asked.

"Last year, Tommy returned to Austin, Texas, where they were originally from. He retrieved this."

Maria takes a photograph out and hands it to Ellie who takes it and looks at it. Linda looks over her shoulder. It is a picture of Joel, but an old picture as Joel looks younger. His arm is looped around the neck of a young girl with short blond hair, spaced green eyes, and wearing a blue and white vertically striped shirt with the number fourteen on it. She is holding up a trophy in one hand while giving the V sign with the other.

"That's his daughter, Sarah," Maria said.

"His daughter?!" Ellie exclaimed.

Linda is also surprised to learn of such a thing about him.

"That was taken a month before the outbreak," Maria explained. "Sarah played on a soccer team and they won the tournament, thanks to her scoring the winning goal."

"We never knew any this," Linda said with soft wonder.

"He didn't lose her in the manner you'd expect," Maria said, then tells them about the circumstances surrounding Sarah's death.

"Oh my God, that's horrifying!" Linda exclaimed.

"And people wonder why the Fireflies are trying to overthrow the military," Ellie said sarcastically.

An alarm suddenly blares.

"What the fuck?" Ellie exclaimed.

"Bandits!" Maria gasped.

The sounds of shouting and gunfire are heard outside. Maria runs out of the interior office and over to the open door to look out. She slams it shut and locks it.

"I knew this quiet wasn't gonna last!" Maria stated as she hurries back over to them while taking out a gun to cock it.

"Hey, Ellie, it feels like we're back in Pittsburgh, don't it?" Linda said as she too checks the ammo in her gun.

"Yeah, but the only difference is that Pittsburgh was theirs."

A loud thumping and banging is heard upon the door.

"Come on! Get that fuckin' door open!" A man bellowed from just outside it.

Maria grabs her walkie talkie.

"Tommy! Bandits, they're breaking into the building!" Then releases for him to talk.

"Can you get out of there?" He radioed back.

"No, we're trapped!"

"We're gonna come to you, just stay-"

There is gunshot from outside and the area around the lock explodes outward.

"They're here! Ellie, Linda, hide!" Maria radioed back, then drops her walkie talkie. "We gotta run!"

They dive over some tables just as the door flies off and a large muscular bandit comes charging in like a bellowing bear as he carries a shotgun and fires it off.

The females dive into a corner office. In that instance, Linda pops up and shoots him, getting him in the arm. He winces, but instead of dropping his gun he turns toward her. Linda fires off another round and hits him in the chest. He still won't go down and she fires yet another round, this time hitting him in the side of the head. It was not close enough to hit him in the brain, but close enough to blow his right temple off and rupture his eye. The bandit roars with pain as he reaches up and presses his hand against his ruined temple and eye.

Another bandit, a smaller one, darts around him and fires at Linda. She feels as if she had been hit in the side of the head with a metal pipe as she gets a loud ringing in her ears. She falls backwards as lights flash and flicker before her eyes.

"Linda!" Maria cried and her face is looming before her. "Oh, it's just a graze!"

There is another blast of the shotgun, along with that bandit roaring in a voice that reminds Linda of an enraged bear.

"That huge fucker's comin'!" Ellie is next heard screaming.

In a flash, Linda's head clears and she shoves Maria aside, then lunges for her gun and presses herself up against the wall. A second later, the barrel of the shotgun thrusts over the side near her and she ends up seeing the bandit. He doesn't notice Linda because she is off to his right and he cannot see her due to his ruined eye that she is responsible for.

As fast as she can move, Linda takes aim and fires. The bullet hits the giant of a bandit squarely in the head, causing him to topple backward.

"Thanks, Linda!" Maria said as she takes her position and shoots, along with Ellie. Together they shoot at more of the bandits and they start dropping. It then comes to Linda that they are not dropping because of their shots at them.

"They're all dead," Ellie said.

"Tommy?" Maria called.

"Maria!" Tommy called back.

"I'm alright! Linda and the kid's with me!"

Maria hurries over to Tommy who clasps her shoulders.

"You okay?" Tommy asked.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine," Maria answered relieved. "I'm fine."

"I got grazed in the head," Linda said as she shows the short bloody scrape the bullet had left alongside her head. "But I'm fine too."

Linda watches as Joel hurries over to Ellie.

"Joel," Ellie gasped. "Oh man, they were coming in from every direction. Then Maria was like, We gotta run! And so we dove over these tables and this huge guy blasts in with a shotgun."

"Hey, hey are you hurt?" Joel interjected.

"No," Ellie said.

"Goddamn it," Tommy said nearby. "I need to talk to you."

* * *

"Absolutely not!" Maria snapped. "You tell him to go find somebody else."

"Maria, I can't have this hanging over my head," Tommy replied.

Joel and Linda are nearby watching. Ellie joins them.

"Do you have any idea how many men we lost here today?" Maria snapped.

"Hey," Ellie said. "What's that all about?"

Linda and Joel stare at each other.

"Does that have anything to do with me?" Ellie asked.

"We'll talk about it later," Joel answered.

"Did he tell you were the lab is?" Ellie asked.

"We'll talk about it later," Joel asserted.

Linda sighs as her disappointment begins rising.

"Later . . . Right," Ellie said snidely, then walks away.

Linda shakes her head with slow disappointment at Joel, then continues to listen in on the argument.

"It takes one," Maria continued to berate. "One fuck up. One fuck up and then I turn into one of those widows. Okay?"

"I have to do this," Tommy replied flatly. "I don't know what else to say."

Maria softly shakes her head with disappointment. "Fine." As she throws up her hands and walks away toward them.

"Maria," Tommy called. "Maria!"

Maria glares at Joel.

"Here we go," Joel sighed dryly.

"You," Maria said menacingly as she stops before Joel, then points at him. "If anything. Anything at all happens to him. It's on you."

Then walks off. There is a moment of silence. Linda inhales and exhales sharply at her frustration.

"So that's how it's gonna be," she finally blurted curtly with a glare at Joel. "After all you two went through, and with me as witness, you're just gonna hand her over to another stranger."

"This doesn't concern you," Joel stated.

"No . . . ? But that doesn't mean I can't feel for Ellie. Do you honestly believe she will agree to this? You know how self-willed she is. She's going to put up a fight."

"So what about you now?" Joel asked, changing the conversation. "Now that we've discovered that your sister is Tommy's wife, what're you gonna do?"

Linda takes a deep breath and exhales.

"You're welcome to stay," Tommy said.

"I'm staying," Linda finally answered softly. "But at least consider Ellie's-."

"Say again, I didn't hear ya," Tommy said into his walkie talkie. He then gives the pair a look of concern. "Joel, that girl of yours, she took one of our horses and rode off."

"I guess that's her answer for you," Linda said dryly.

"Damn it," Joel growled. "Which way?"

"C'mon," Tommy said.

Joel looks back at Linda for a moment. In that moment she wants to join in on the search.

"I'll stay here," she instead answered. A feeling of lose overcomes her, but it leaves. She goes off in search of Maria and catches up with her, then tells her what is going on.

"I'm not surprised," Maria said snidely. "And I don't care if he is Tommy's brother, he has no right to just show up here and make such a demand!" Maria then sighs as she runs her fingers through her hair. "He clearly doesn't care about that girl."

"You're wrong," Linda said softly as she momentarily clasps Maria's shoulder. "He cares very deeply for Ellie. I was with them long enough to notice this . . . He's scared, Maria. He doesn't want to feel what he felt when he lost Sarah. So he wants to pass her off now before he gets too close to her."

"That still doesn't excuse him," Maria snapped. "He has to deal with this problem and handing that girl off on someone else won't help him deal with it."

"Then let's pray that Tommy is successful and makes it back alive," Linda said.

"So what about you now?" Maria asked as she looks at Linda with a fearful look of her possibly leaving her again. Linda can see it in her eyes.

"I'm staying," she answered softly with a smile.

Maria smiles as her eyes shimmer.

"I'm glad to hear that," she said as she hugs Linda. "Come. I'll have you put up at our place until better living arrangements can be made."

"Thank you."

Later that evening, Linda is fixing up the room that she will be staying in when Maria enters. The light bulbs in the house are on, showing that the electricity is back on. Something Linda had missed.

"Linda! Joel and Tommy have returned with Ellie!" She said excitedly.

"That's great!" As an overwhelming sense of relief rushes through her.

"Even greater!" Maria continued with relief. "Joel changed his mind and will instead take Ellie to the Fireflies and not Tommy!" Her tone exuberant with relief. "Come on, they want to see you before they leave."

Linda follows Maria to Joel and Ellie sharing horseback.

"Maria told me what you're doing, Joel," Linda said. "You're making the right decision. Where're you heading to?"

"To Colorado," Joel answered. "That's where the Fireflies have their lab."

"Linda, I was told that you won't be coming with us," Ellie said with a hint of sorrow in her tone.

Linda feels that sorrow but smiles anyway. "Yes, that's right," she said tenderly, then looks at Maria. "My journey ends here."

"Well . . . I guess this is it then," Ellie said with sad softness.

"Take care, Ellie," Linda said tenderly as she walks up to them. She gives Ellie a hug. "You too, Joel." As she also gives him a hug. She had flirted with the idea of becoming intimate with him, but had wondered if that was really such a good idea.

"Goodbye, Linda," Joel said softly and heels the horse into motion.

"Yeah. Goodbye, Linda," Ellie repeated as she waves back.

"Goodbye," Linda sighed with a tightened throat as a tear streams down her cheek as she returns the wave.

She drops her hand when Ellie looks forward once again and watches as they ride away on the horse.

"I'm really going to miss them," Linda said fondly. "I wonder if they will ever return?"

"Who knows," Maria shrugged.

"I hope they do return," Linda said with soft firmness.


	23. Epilogue

It is Spring and Linda is helping with the tilling of the field. Her hair is now several inches long.

"Linda!" Maria is heard yelling.

Linda stops work to regard her sister who comes running up to her, then stops before her.

"Joel and Ellie have returned!" Maria exclaimed.

"What?!" Linda exclaimed as she drops her hoe. Joy and relief flood through her.

"Come on!" As Maria pulls on her arm, compelling Linda to follow.

She finally meets up with Joel and Ellie.

"Joel! Ellie!" Linda called out to them as she runs up to them. As she gets closer, she notes that they each have a harder look to them, especially Ellie.

Linda first hugs Ellie tightly. "Oh my God, you're both safe!"

"Your hair's gotten longer," Ellie noted.

"That it has," as she stroked her own hair. Linda next hugs Joel. "But what about you two now?!"

"The Fireflies had moved to Mercy Hospital in Salt Lake City," Ellie answered. "When we got there, we had fallen into deep water and I almost drowned. When I woke up, I was wearing a hospital gown and in the back of a car that Joel was driving. He told me that the Fireflies had discovered dozens more people who're immune like me. The cure didn't work so they stopped searching, then told Joel to take me back."

"Really? So why didn't they tell you?" Linda mused.

"She was being prepped for surgery so they could take a piece of the fungus out of her," Joel cut in. "As I was sitting around in the waiting area, Marlene came in and told me that they had just learned that there were dozens more like her out there. Moreover, she told me that they had tried to find the cure through one of them, but it didn't work. I would've waited for Ellie to wake up, but Marlene told me to take her before then."

"Why would she do that?" Linda asked curiously.

"I asked her why she couldn't just wait for Ellie to wake up and tell her the news herself," Joel explained. "But she only ended up giving me some vague answer that she had to go somewhere else right away. I didn't press because I knew she wasn't gonna answer me . . . Anyway, let's get settled down."

"This way," Tommy said.

* * *

Linda walks up to a small cabin after learning that is where Joel is staying, then knocks on the door and Joel answers it.

"Where's Ellie?" Linda asked.

"She's tending to the horses."

"I came to see you. May I come in?"

"Sure," he answered as he steps aside to allow Linda in, and closes the door.

"What's on your mind?" Joel asked.

Linda takes a deep breath to psyche herself up.

"So what really happened with the Fireflies?" As she folds her arms.

"Leave this alone," Joel said grimly.

"Things obviously didn't go the way you thought it would with them, even though Ellie's friend, Marlene, was in charge the whole time."

"You need to stop," he said with more sternness as he points at her.

"Something went wrong and you had to fight your way out of there with her," Linda concluded with an increasingly grim tone.

"I said enough," he growled through gnashed teeth as he takes a step toward her.

"Fine," Linda snapped as she holds up her hands. "I won't say anything more about this," then points at him. "But I do hope you understand that the truth always has a way of getting out."

She then turns and leaves.

"They were gonna remove her brain to find the cure," Joel confessed.

Linda pauses in her clasping for the doorknob, feeling shocked by that news. She turns to regard him with just such a look.

"Marlene was close to Ellie's mother, and yet she approved of it," Joel continued. "I killed my way up to Ellie and managed to save her. After carrying her outside, Marlene confronted me and tried to talk me into giving her up. Sayin' that she won't feel anything. But I shot her instead. After putting Ellie in the car, I went back to make sure that Queen Firefly was dead."

Linda stares at Joel for a moment blinking, she is at a lost for words.

"Do you understand now?" Joel asked grimly.

"Yes. Yes, I do," Linda answered sheepishly and leaves.

Back outside, Linda takes a moment to collect her thoughts. She wonders why the Fireflies couldn't have just taken a blood sample, but figures that they might have thought the same thing too. This Marlene may have even thought about every other possibility, only to be confronted with the conclusion that removing Ellie's brain will have to be done in order to find a cure.

A cure. Linda now wonders if Joel had truly done the right thing. One girl for the rest of Homo Sapiens, given that this will increase humanity's odds of surviving. But now . . . now she wonders if Joel had not put the entire human species on the road to extinction.

Or maybe the cure might not have worked. She remembers back to when medical specialists were looking for cures to other terminal diseases, only to have their hopes dashed.

But that won't be known now.

Linda shakes her head and resumes walking. A young girl's life was at stake. She had the right to live too. Besides, humanity had survived other disasters and came out on top. On way or another, humanity will come out on top, though not within her life time.

For now her life is in this brave new world. A new life here with her sister, who Linda now sees waving her over. Linda smiles and hurries over.

"Yes, a new life," she said to herself, "in exchange for the old one that passed me by."


End file.
